44 THE SOCIETY FOE THE PEESEEVATION OF 



the hour is still early and the sun not too hot, they will lio rolling 

 and basking, while truants keep dropping in ; as the day gets hot 

 they betake themselves to the shade of a tree or of a cool clump 

 of reeds, where they sleep throughout the warm hours. 



When the shadows begin to lengthen and the air cools, the 

 time has arrived for another visit to the water ; then after an 

 interval follows the evening hunt, should the morning one have 

 been a failure, and they will drink again before lying up for the 

 night, the time for which is very uncertain, as I have sometimes 

 heard them calling as late as 10 or 11 o'clock p.m. 



They have three distinct calls, the first and best known being 

 the peculiar and weird cry usually heard at dark and_ in the 

 morning, which is the rally for the pack after a hunt ; this cry is 

 almost exactly similar to the last note of the call of the ordinary 

 cuckoo, and is repeated eight or ten times in quick succession. 



The second is the loud single wolf-like growl of warning and 

 alarm given when the animals are suddenly disturbed, and have 

 sprung up to gaze at the intruder; it is much louder and hoarser 

 than that of any domestic dog, and is quite unmistakable. 



Then there is the peculiar growling, probably expressive of 

 satisfaction, which is made when breaking up a carcase ; when 

 first wounded, I have heard some dogs utter a single low yelp, 

 but quite different to the noise made by a domestic dog when 

 injured. 



As regards breeding, the young seem to bo born about th 

 month of May, the females of the pack having previously selected 

 some retired spot where there are old ant-bear or other holes. 

 Here parturition takes place, and whether the young ones of 

 different females are at first placed in separate lodgings or not is 

 far from, clear, but it is fairly certain that very shortly after birth 

 the offspring of a good many bitches are i'ound occupying the 

 same burrow promiscuously mingled. While the cubs are still 

 young the whole troop, including the mothers, appears to hunt as 

 usual, but the latter, at all events, and probably all, lie up near or 

 at the breeding-ground. At two or throe months old the youngsters 

 are ready to take part in the expeditions. 



The wild dog prefers, and in fact invariably seems, to kill 

 his own meat, differing essentially in this particular from the 

 felines, which latter would appear to prefer to employ a butcher 

 when possible ; for this reason it is practically impossible to tempt 

 him with carrion, and so traps and poison are of but little avail 

 against him, and the rifle must be the mainstay. It is said that 

 i ti some parts of the Cape Colony, an open country, where they 

 were at one time a terrible scourge to farmers, the process of 

 extirpation was materially assisted by laying a drag and placing 

 at intervals small pieces of poisoned liver or other delicacy along 

 the line ; but in the Sabi country, owing perhaps to the ease with 

 Which game can be caught, nothing of the kind has so far 

 answered against them, and there has only been one case of a 

 wild dog being trapped. 



e 



