African Hunting-Dog 603 



Canida, and in many ways suggesting the Hysenidae, but solus in genus and 

 species. A glance at the long muscular legs, narrow body and deep chest, 

 and the broad muzzle declares it a beast which hunts its prey down by 

 scent, speed, and endurance. It has the same number of teeth as the wolf, 

 but the skull is shorter, broader, and more hyasnine. It has four toes armed 

 with powerful nails on each foot. In colour it is most variable, and I have 

 seen some singular patterns on its hide. The ears are large and rounded, 

 and almost bare. Except on the neck and throat the hair is nowhere thick 

 on the body, and the colour-patches — ochreous gray, yellow, black, and 

 white— are unsymmetrically disposed. Muzzle always black, and in indi- 

 viduals whose predominating colours are black and ochreous gray a stripe 

 ot the former extends from it over the frontals and crown and down the 

 neck, where it meets the dark pattern of the body. When yellow is the 

 predominating colour, the muzzle alone is black and the colour patterns 

 are dull and indistinct. The tail is bushy, yellow at the root, then deep 

 gray, with an irregular black band about the middle, and the tip white. I 

 have shot a specimen in Central Africa in which the tip was pale burf- 

 coloured. The feet are usually more or less spotted. The odour which 

 emanates from these animals is most offensive and very powerful, so much 

 so, that long after they have left any spot, the fact that they have been 

 there is immediately revealed to one's olfactory organs. The following are 

 the dimensions of an exceptionally large dog I shot in 1896 in the 

 Matamiri, and of an average-sized bitch : — 



Length in straight line from nose to ro 

 Length of tail 



Extreme length over all (sportsman's n 

 Perpendicular shoulder height 

 Girth behind the shoulder 



I am of opinion that in South-Ea 





Large 3 



Average ? 



■>f tail 



. 3 ft. 4 in. 

 . 1 ft. 2 in. 







t) 4 ft- 'O in. 



3 ft. 10 in. 





. 2 ft. 5 in. 



2 ft. 





. 2ft. Jin. 



1 ft. 11 in. 



Africa 



these animals 



attain theii 



