Fish River Bush, South Africa. 209 



coursing in open country, and English foxhounds have been 

 trained to scent and follow him. He betakes himself generally 

 to holes also, made in the earth by the antbear and porcupine, 

 which have been abandoned. They are rather handsome in 

 appearance, with erect open ears, long flowing fur, and a fine 

 bushy tail, black at the after-part. The back is marked by a 

 large patch of dark gray, with long white hairs interspersed, 

 extending from the neck to the rump, and is bounded by a dif- 

 ferent coloured stripe all round, the rest of the fur being of 

 a tawny colour ; the tip of the nose is black and sharp. They 

 can be made a pet of when caught young, and be taught to 

 follow and act like a dog somewhat, but are rather uncertain 

 in temper. Their prepared furred skins are made into very 

 handsome carosses, and are nearly equal in this respect to 

 those made of wild-cat skin, that of the male being hand- 

 somer than the female. Jackals are generally solitary in 

 their habits in a wild state, and are not seen in troops like 

 the wild dog in this part of the country. 



The Mane Jackal (Proteles Lalandi, Is. Geof.), a kind of 

 striped hysena, shares peculiarities proper to the dog and the 

 hysena. It is rarer than the common fox, more shy, and less 

 fleet when pursued, and lives in holes in the earth. Its food 

 would appear to consist chiefly of ants, beetles, roots and bulbs, 

 &c. ; for the obtaining of mere carnivorous food, neither its 

 teeth nor its strength would seem adapted. Its knees are soil- 

 marked, hard, and bare of fur ; and its posture at times, on feed- 

 ing on certain aliments, would seem similar to the goat, which 

 goes on its knees when cropping the grass. Its fur is coarse, 

 of a dirty gray colour, and marked with transverse black stripes 

 on the body and limbs. A mane extends along the back from 

 the head to the tail, which is erected when the animal is pur- 

 sued or its passions aroused, but is not perceived when in a 

 state of repose. The tail is bushy, like the jackal, black at 

 the tip, and hangs down as far as the hock, about half as 

 short as the jackal's. The fore feet have five toes, and the 

 hind feet four toes, like the dog, in which it differs from the 

 generic characters of the hysena. The teats of the female are 

 four, situated in the ventral region, and the tongue is spiny, or 

 aculeated, as in the true hyaena. The teeth seem peculiar to 



VOL. LV. NO. CX.— OCTOBER 1853. 



