196 



THE BEASTS OF PREY. 



in a pack and together they attack the Sheep and 

 Goat flocks of the natives. 



The Striped A species much resembling these is 



Wolf, an Inter- the Striped Wolf {Cards adustus), an 

 mediate Species, animal resembling both the Wolf and 

 the Jackal. The body is elongated; the head of a 

 conical shape, pointed toward the snout, not unlike 

 that of the Fox; the eyes have a slanting position; 

 the ears are widely separated, like those of the Jackal, 

 and rounded; the legs are strikingly long and slen- 

 der. The tail reaches to the ground. 



"The Striped Wolf," says Pechuel-Loesche, who 

 observed him in Lower Guinea, especially in Loango, 

 in the wilderness as well as tamed, " is statelier and 

 has longer legs than the Fox. He has the same sly 

 expression of the face, but suggests also a decidedly 

 better disposition and has a more aristocratic bearing. 

 These Wolves are remarkably agile, lithe animals. 



freedom. Not only did he run around in the enclos- 

 ure and visit our rooms, but he prowled around for 

 hours in our plantations and the forests of the neigh- 

 borhood. He searched for Beetles and Grasshpp- 

 pers, playfully jumping after those that whirred away, 

 and also caught many an unwary little mammal or 

 bird. Unfortunately $e did not catch the Rats which 

 had become quite a plague in our camp. He left 

 the poultry alone after once having received a slight 

 castigation for catching a Hen. When after this he 

 regarded some forbidden dainty with covetous eyes, ' 

 a mild word or a slight remonstrance was sufficient 

 to turn him from his evil way. Sometimes he strayed 

 from the enclosure and remained away all day, but 

 he always made his appearance in the dining-room at 

 night to receive a few scraps. If he was forgotten 

 for a longer time than he deemed proper, he pushed 

 his nose against the leg of some one present, or, like 



CAPE JACKAL. Ranging in eastern-Africa. fromsouthern Nubia soutli to the Cape,' from thence aeipes the contineh,t.a^ for some dis- 

 tance up the western coast is the Cape Jackal. It is especially plentiful in Abyssinia and south Africa, and i^'^nd in both'plairisMid forests and 

 is especially abundant in the mountainous regions. It is distinguished from the other Jackals by the Fox-likeihead, and 'the longj pointed ears 

 which lie dose together. It has a thick, fine, soft fur of a beautiful yellowish gray on the sides, yellowish white on the under portion, while the 

 back is covered with a broad cape of a blackish hue crossed with white lines. It is very bold, entering villages and even camps, showing no dread 

 of camp-fires. It steals everything edible it can get hold of, and has even been known to enter boats by way of the gang-plank. It creates havoc 

 among poultry and small domestic animals, and is accused by the Somali natives of eating the fat tails off the live Sheep of their country. {Cants 

 mesometas.) 



and it affords one great pleasure to observe their 

 movements. They come quite close to human dwell- 

 ings, for the village Dogs never think of picking a 

 quarrel with them; neither do the natives, who call 

 them 'Mbulu,' harm them. The Mbulu utters his 

 shrill, long-drawn yelp in the morning and evening 

 all the year round ; it is so loud that a newcomer 

 may be quite startled when he hears it in the imme- 

 diate proximity of a village or encampment. The 

 piteous cries of a Mbulu once brought us to the edge 

 of a bushy little forest just in time to rescue the ani- 

 mal from a huge Snake which was strangling it. 

 The Striped "We frequently kept half-grown Striped 

 Wolf in Wolves in our enclosure. One of them 

 Captivity, grew to be a very stately animal, and 

 was so tame and docile that he was given unlimited 



a Dog, put his head on somebody's knee. He ac- 

 cepted everything thankfully : bread, beans, rice, 

 fish, meat, even raw bananas, or oil nuts ; but he 

 could crush only the smallest bones with his teeth. 

 If one of us paid him attention or spoke to him kindly 

 he would look into our eyes with a greatly pleased 

 and affectionate expression, like a Dog, but very sel- 

 dom wagged his tail. The human voice produced an 

 impression on him such as I have seen exhibited only 

 by the Gorilla ; it literally seemed to fascinate him." 

 Character. The Jackal ( Canis or Lupus aureus) is 

 istics of the the animal which the ancients called 

 Jackal. Thos or Gold- Wolf, and probably the 

 same as the " Foxes " mentioned in the Bible, with 

 which Samson, by setting fire to their tails, burned the 

 wheat fields and vineyards of the Philistines. The 



