SOUTHERN AFRICA. 223 
preceding evening. Thefe creatures came in fuch a body as 
completely to chace away the dogs, and to frighten all our 
people though armed with mufquets. 
Befides the common wolf and the domeftic dog, there are no 
fewer than five diftind: fpecles of the canine tribe in Southern 
Africa that have pafled through my hands : three of thefe are 
called in the colony by the general name of jackal ; one the 
mefomclas^ an animal well known and very common in every 
part of the Cape ; another, the aureus, which is fmaller than 
the firft, goes generally in troops, and is commonly met with 
in the Sneuwberg : the third is a fpecies of fox, as yet, I be- 
lieve, not defcribed ; the color is grizzled, the ground cinerous 
blue mixed with filvery hairs j face, legs, and belly light- 
brown ; tail ftraight, grizzled, and bufhy ; ears long, pointed, 
ere£t ; face remarkably pointed ; the hair foft, and refembling 
fur ; in ftature it is confiderably lefs than the common fox. 
The other two go under the name of wolves ; one is the cro- 
cuta, called the fpotted wolf; the other is an enormous beaft, 
and feldom met with except in the remote parts of the colony : 
its lize is that of the largeft Newfoundland dog ; the color a 
pale fallow ; the hair of the neck and back long, thick, and 
clotted ; tall fhort and ftraight ; fhoulders, thighs, and legs 
marked with large irregular black blotches : from its having 
only four toes on the fore-feet, it may probably be a variety of 
the common hyasna. 
The fmell of the carcafe prefently attracted a prodigious 
number of birds of prey, one of which, a fmall kite, entirely 
brown, 
