THE BLACK-BACKED JACKAL 
When lions are out on the prowl for food, the 
jackals are not far off ; and when the lord and lady 
of the forest are satisfying their appetites off the 
flesh of some animal they have slain, the hungry 
jackals skulk around in the neighbouring bushes, or 
at a respectful distance out on the veld; and the 
instant the lions retire they rush in and eat up every 
morsel of the leavings. 
Hunters are often dreadfully pestered by jackals, 
which take every opportunity of chewing up the 
reims, which are the softened thongs of animal hide 
for securing the oxen, &c. When a hunter happens 
to kill an animal many miles from his camp, he on 
his return some hours later with pack animals or a 
cart, finds, perchance, nothing but a skeleton and 
a crowd of jackals fiercely quarrelling over the 
marrow bones. 
A hunter invariably has a crowd of jackals sur- 
rounding his camp at night, attracted by the smell 
of the flesh of the game animals he has killed. 
In the absence of carrion, the jackal kills and 
devours any living thing which is unable to resist. 
So cowardly, however, is it, that animals consider- 
ably smaller than itself which are courageous and 
fight fiercely, the jackal leaves severely alone. The 
smaller antelopes, hares, game birds, their young 
and eggs; lizards, rats, mice, small tortoises, in- 
sects, and in fact any of the numerous more or less 
defenceless creatures of veld, forest, and mountain 
it preys upon. 
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