1 92 THE FOX 



of the food. I have formed rather a high opinion of 

 the jackal's intelligence after being pitted against him 

 on many occasions, and by no means always having 

 the best of the deal. 



Jackals cannot have had much experience of being 



hunted, except, perhaps, in the Peshawur Vale, or on 



the Neilgherries, yet it takes them a very short time to 



learn the advantage of shifting the burden of the chase 



on to another of their tribe. Again, a jackal is well 



aware of the advantage of clinging to a covert, and 



as scent in India is often better inside a covert than 



out, it is most difficult to bring hounds away on the 



first jackal that breaks. As in the case of the fox, 



the first to break is generally the boldest and best. 



Another thing jackals learn is to leave the coverts 



which are much hunted. I rather doubt if the jackal 



is as much attached to his haunts as the fox, and the 



best coverts are therefore uncertain draws. Yet, on 



the other hand, sport in India, as in England, is 



much benefited by careful work in covert, and when 



I did find jackals in the coverts most often drawn, 



they went away boldly and well as the season drew 



on. 



The jackal is in another respect like the fox : he 

 runs only over as much country as he knows. A 

 good wild jackal has a range of about five or six miles. 



