ORDER CARNASSIER. 353 



see, and who are in the habit of ministering to their wants. 

 But it is rare to see an instance of an animal who will fly, 

 and yet suffer itself to be touched with impunity. As soon, 

 however, as the Chacal knows the persons who approach 

 him, he will fly no longer ; he will even come and yield him- 

 self to their caresses. » 



This great facility of being tamed, and proneness to sub- 

 mission, remarked in some Chacals, would tend to confirm 

 the idea of certain naturalists, who have deemed this spe- 

 cies to be the original source of our domestic Dogs. In 

 fact, the organization of the Chacals is entirely similar to 

 that of the Dogs, and when these last re-enter the savage 

 state, they assume, in all respects, the mode of existence of 

 the Chacal. They form numerous families, dig burrows for 

 themselves, feed on carcasses, and pursue their prey in 

 concert. One essential difference, however, exists between 

 them. The Chacals exhale an odour so strong and disagree- 

 able, as must ever have prevented men from suffering them 

 to approach too closely, or from making them the compa- 

 nions of their house and table. There is no reason for 

 supposing that, in a domestic state, they would have lost 

 this offensive peculiarity*. This of itself may be sufficient 

 to refute the notion of the Chacal being the original root from 

 which our common Dogs have sprung, though some have 

 not noticed it, while others have. The fact is, that the 

 presence of a single Chacal would be sufficient to poison a 

 whole habitation. 



The Chacals have always been compared to the Foxes, but 

 they cannot, with any propriety, be said to appertain to a 

 class of animals so generally considered nocturnal. They 

 are, in fact, (with the exception of smell just mentioned,) 

 genuine Dogs. Like these, the pupil of their eyes is round, 

 the eye itself is simple, that is, without any accessory organ. 



* It must not be forgotten, however, that all the Mephites or 

 Skunks lose, in a great degree, their offensive smell, and the power 

 of producing it, when in captivity, as Major Smith assures us. 



