SOUTHERN AFRICA. 177 
completely to chase away the dogs, and to frighten all our 
people though armed with musquets. 
Beside the common wolf and the domestic dog, there are no 
fewer than five distinct species of the canine tribe in Southern 
Africa that have passed through my hands ; three of these are 
called in the colony by the general name of jackal ; one of 
them is the jnesomelas, an animal well known and very com- 
mon in every part of the Cape ; another, the aureus, which is 
smaller than the first, goes generally in troops, and is com- 
monly met with in the Sneuwberg : the third is a species of 
fox, as yet, I believe, not described ; the color is grizzle, the 
ground cinereous blue mixed Avith silvery hairs ; face, legs, 
and belly light-brown ; tail straight, grizzled, and bushy ; ears 
long, pointed, erect ; face remarkably pointed ; the hair soft, 
and resembling fur; in stature it is considerably less than the 
common fox. The other two species go under the name of 
wolves ; one is the crocuta, called the spotted wolf; the other 
is an animal of an enormous size, and seldom met with ex- 
cept in the remote parts of the colony : being as tall and as 
bulky as the largest Newfoundland dog ; the color a pale 
fallow ; the hair of the neck and back long, thick, and clot- 
ted ; tail short and straight ; shoulders, thighs, and legs 
marked with large irregular black blotches ; and it has only 
four toes on the fore-feet; a circumstance from whence it may 
probably be considered as a variety of the common hyeena. 
The smell of the carcase presently attracted a prodigious 
number of birds of prey, one species of which, a small kite, 
entirely brown, with a forked tail, was so bold that it suficred 
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