THE JACKALS. 97 



THE JACKALS. 



IN THE ROYAL MENAGERY, TOWER OF LONDON. 



The wolf, the dog, and the jackal may be considered as varieties of the same species, the only 

 difference existing being in their natural habits, accordingly as they present themselves in a wild or 

 domesticated state. The jackal, however, has not long been known in this country ; for previously 

 tc the time of Pennant, no specimen had ever been known in England, and consequently the descrip- 

 tions which appeared of it were vague and unsatisfactory, and intermixed with those fabulous reports, 

 with which the natural history of many foreign animals is disfigured. This circumstance must 

 naturally excite our surprise when we consider, that our commercial relations have been very extensive 

 with several countries where the jackal abounds, and that those relations existed for nearly a century 

 before any living specimen was brought to this country. It is to be found in all parts of the eastern 

 ■world, in Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to Barbary, in Syria, Persia, and in all the provinces 

 of southern Asia. From the circumstance of the jackals going in troops of forty, fifty, or even two 

 hundred at a time, and, on the other hand, from the fox being a solitary animal, it has been considered 

 by some of the ablest commentators on the sacred writings, that the three hundred foxes, to the tails 

 of which Samson tied firebrands, were in reality jackals, and not foxes. 



The specimens in the Tower differ considerably in size ; the average length is about two feet, and. 

 the height seldom exceeds more than a foot and a half. The general colour of the animal is a pale 

 fulvous. The head is of a fox-red above, mixed with ash-grey hairs, having each a blackish ring and 

 tip ; the upper lip is of a lighter shade on each side of the nose, and the throat is of the same colour ; 

 the whiskers, the long hairs on the chin, and those above the eyes are black ; the ears are fox-red 

 externally, and lighter internally, the neck and back are a greyish yellow, dashed with a shade of 

 dusky ; the under parts of the body and the legs are of a light reddish yellow, but the shoulders and 

 thighs are externally of a fox-red ; the claws are black, the tail straight and bushy, and more hairy than 

 in the wolf, and of a greyish yellow, but descending only to the foot. The hair of the jackal is stronger 

 and coarser than that of the wolf, and between the hairs there is a woolly fur of a grey colour. The 

 four middle front teeth are of a truncated form, as if cut off flat, not perceptibly notched nor indented ; 

 the two exterior larger ones in the upper jaw are somewhat carinated ; in the lower law they are 

 rounded. The canine teeth in the upper jaw are somewhat larger than in the under; the grinders are 

 six on each side. In its external figure the jackal resembles the wolf, being considerably larger than 

 the fox. In regard to size, however, the animals in the Tower must not be considered as a just crite- 

 rion, two of them being even smaller than the fox, and the other very little superior to it. 



The jackals, in numerous troops, hunt like hounds in full cry, from evening till morning. They 

 are no less destructive to poultry than the wolf, ravaging the streets, villages, and gardens, and 

 even destroying children if they be left unprotected. To the natives of the hot countries the 

 jackal is of the same essential service as the hyaena and the vulture; for as it is not required that 

 the prey should be living on which it feeds, it seeks the bodies in a state of decomposition, and 

 the air thereby becomes purified of the putrescent effluvia. Like the hyasna, the jackal is generally 

 to be found in the vicinity of armies or in the track of the caravans, for the purpose of feasting on 

 the slain, or devouring the offals of the animals which die on the journey. When it cannot obtain 

 animal food it will feed on fruits and roots; for, like the fox, it burrows in the earth, and lies there 



