NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
behind the porcupines, which killed several of his 
dogs at different times when they attempted to get 
at the young jackals behind the porcupine’s array 
of formidable quills. 
Young jackals often baffle terrier dogs which are 
sent into their burrows, by scratching a small side 
burrow, and blocking up the entrance from the main 
burrow by scraping dirt into the opening. The 
dog follows the main burrow to the end, and fails 
to detect the hidden puppies. If a hole contain- 
ing puppies is found, and should the finder 
return in a few hours, or the following day, to dig 
them out, he will find the burrow deserted. The 
watchful mother, from the neighbouring scrub, or 
from behind a bush on the veld, has seen him find 
the burrow, and the instant he disappeared from 
view she raced off, and, seizing the pups in her mouth, 
she carried them, one at a time, to some place of 
security. Instances have been known of the parents 
carrying a litter of five or six puppies a couple of 
miles in a single night. The puppies must have 
been carried, for they were too young to walk. 
Mr. Cloete, the well-known and oft-quoted ob- 
server, gives the following interesting account of 
the jackal’s domestic arrangements: ‘‘ The young 
ones have almost always a ‘ back door,’ by which 
they can escape. This is just large enough for the 
puppies to squeeze through, whatever their size ; 
as a rule as soon as the terriers go down the earth 
in which there are young ones, they fly out of one 
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