NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
If captured in the very young puppy condition, 
these jackals may be rendered as tame as any do- 
mestic dog. A friend reared one, and had it for 
many years. When released from its chain it 
showed its delight in true canine fashion, racing, 
gambolling, and jumping up against’its master with 
its forepaws ; or throwing itself on its back on the 
ground. It followed its owner about like an affec- 
tionate dog, but it was necessary for it to be secured 
on a chain most of the time, owing to a habit it 
could not overcome of poaching poultry from folk 
in the neighbourhood. 
One day we were out in the veld with this jackal 
a couple of miles from home, and for a change it 
was taken off the chain. From out of some bushes 
adjacent, a youth emerged with a pair of Fox Terrier 
dogs. These little fellows made a dash at the jackal, 
which instantly turned tail and fled in the wildest 
terror, galloping along at its utmost speed, to vanish 
anon in the midst of some thick thorny scrub a 
mile distant. Returning home, we saw no sign 
of the jackal, and concluded we had seen the last 
of it; but the following morning it was dis- 
covered lying quietly sleeping in its kennel in 
the yard. 
The jackal finds it safer to hide away in the dense 
tangled undergrowth, than to trust itself to a burrow, 
unless when hard pressed by dogs, when it gener- 
ally takes refuge underground, usually in the hole 
of an Aard Vark; but if there should be any dense © 
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