THE ¥ACKAL. 69 
Always teady to take advantage of every favourable opportunity, the 
Jackal is a sad parasite, and hangs on the skirts of the larger carnivora as 
they roam the country for prey, in the hope of securing some share of the 
creatures which they destroy or wound. On account of this companionship 
between the large and small marauders, the Jackal has popularly gained the 
name of the Lion’s Frovider. But, in due justice, the title ought to be re- 
versed, for the lion is in truth the Jackal’s provider, and is often thereby 
JACKAL.—( Canis aureus.) 
deprived of the chance of making a second meal on an animal which he has 
slain. Sometimes, it is said, the Jackal does provide the lion with a meal 
by becoming a victim to the hungry animal in default of better and more 
savoury prey. 
The name of “aureus,” or golden, is derived from the yellowish tinge of 
the Jackal’s fur. In size it rather exceeds a large fox, but its tail is not 
proportionately so long or so bushy as the well-known “brush” of the fox. 
WOLVES. 
FEW animals have earned so widely popular or so little enviable a fame 
as the WOLVES. Whether in the annals of history, in fiction, in poetry, or 
even in the less honoured but hardly less important literature of nursery 
fables, the Wolf holds a prominent position among animals. 
There are several species of Wolf, each of which species is divided into 
three or four varieties, which seem to be tolerably permanent, and by many 
observers are thought to be sufficiently marked to be considered as separate 
species. However, as even the members of the same litter partake of several 
