VACKAHIES: 505 
individual hairs of the body are ringed with black and white or red and white, 
so as to produce a speckled appearance in the fur. The under-parts of the body 
and the inner sides of the limbs are nearly white, the ears and part of the face 
being yellowish brown. This striking coloration occurs, however, only in the 
adult condition, the fur of the young being a uniform dusky brown. The dark 
band on the neck so often found in the common jackal is absent. The ears are 
very long. 
The black-backed jackal was obtained by Mr. Blanford in Abyssinia, but not 
BLACK-BACKED JACKAL (4 nat. size), 
at such high elevations as the common species. The northerly limit of this jackal 
is Middle Nubia, from whence its range extends along the East Coast of Africa to 
the Cape, although there are many places in this tract of country where it is 
apparently absent. In South Africa it extends across the continent, and up the 
western side as far as Mossamedes, but it is unknown in the Congo district. This 
jackal occurs both in the open country and in bush jungle. In the sandy regions 
on the shores of the Red Sea it is to be found frequently in the small thickets 
covering the banks of the ravines, which swarm with hares and pangolins, upon 
which the jackal feeds. At night it visits the villages of the natives, and in 
Somaliland it is stated to bite off the fat tails of the sheep. In the Sudan it lives 
chiefly upon the smaller antelopes, mice, jerboas, and other Rodents. In South 
