THE JACKAL. 



77 



whatever else they can obtain. They devour carrion, whether exposed or subterranean, that is to say, 

 they will exercise' their activity in digging into sepulchres, if these have not been properly protected; 

 but, during the fruit season, they skulk about the vineyards, and grow fat on grapes. 



Though the offensive smell of the genuine jackals renders them unpleasant inmates in a family, 



they are by no means dillicult to tame. One was known to go into the house like a lank, long-legged 



.terrier, and showed his difference of disposition chiefly in an incurable habit of gnawing the legs and 



arms of handsome mahogany chairs, to the great destruction of French varnish and eveiy other 



kind of polish. 



Were there no historical records to prove that the wolf was once an inhabitant of Great Britain, 

 its abundant remains would testify to the fact. They were not, indeed, present in any considerable 

 number in the bone caves of Kirkdale, so diligently examined by Dr. Buckland, but they have been 

 found at Overton, near Plymouth, and at Paviland, in Glamorganshire. Alluding to the difficulty 

 expressed by Cuvier, in distinguishing between the wolf and the dog, Professor Owen, referring to some 

 specimens from Kent's Hole, says : "The more important points of concordance between the skulls 

 from Kent's Hole and those of the existing wolf leave no reasonable ground for doubting their specific 



TIIIO JACKAL Of SENEGAL. 



identity ; and the naturalist who does not admit that the dog and the wolf are of the same species, and 

 who might be disposed to question the reference of the British fossils now described to the wolf, must, 

 in that case, resort to the hypothesis that there formerly existed in England a wild variety of dog, 

 having the low and contracted forehead of the wolf, and which had become extinct before the records 

 of the human race. The conclusion, however, to which any comparison of the fossil and recent bones 

 of the large Canidas have led me, is, that the wolves which our ancestors extirpated were of the same 

 species as those which, at a much more remote period, left their bones in the limestone caverns by the 

 side of the extinct bears and hyaenas." 



To this statement of our distinguished physiologist it may be added that recognisable remains of 

 the dog have, however, been found in bone caves. Dr. Schmerliiig has described and figured an almost 

 entire skull, two right rami of lower jaws, a humerus, ulna, radius, and some smaller bones, which 

 indicate two varieties of the domestic dog.' These remains were discovered in some bone caves 

 near Liege. 



THE FOX. 



WE now pass to other animals,* which form a subdivision of the great genus Canis. The dental 

 and general osteological character of the foxes agrees with that of the true dogs, but the lengthened 



* Vulpes. Brisson. 



