HYENAS, JACKALS, WILD DOGS, Etc. 
and from any species of Asiatic or Australian wild dog, having a much 
shorter and more hyena -like head, and large rounded instead of pointed 
ears. Moreover, the African hunting -dog differs from all its nearest allies 
in having only four toes on the front as well as on the hind feet. In size a 
male hunting -dog stands about two feet at the shoulder. In colour and 
length of coat there is a considerable difference between the wild dogs 
found in different parts of their range, and several local races of the species 
have been recognized by British and German naturalists; but as the points 
of difference between these races are entirely superficial and unimportant, 
and as all African hunting -dogs, wherever they are met with, are identical 
in habits and mode of life, it is hardly necessary to refer to these 
sub-species in these pages. In ground colour, African hunting-dogs are of 
a yellow fawn, with black, grey and white patches superimposed. The tail 
is bushy, with a white tip, and in the colder portions of their range the 
coat is thick, and there is often a ruff of long hair round the neck. In East 
Africa the hunting -dogs appeared to me to have more black in their 
colour scheme, especially on the head and neck, than in South Africa. 
Hunting-dogs usually live and hunt in packs of from a dozen to twenty, 
but I have seen more than thirty of them together. They hunt both by night 
and day, but usually early in the morning. Being possessed of great speed 
and endurance, they can run down even the fleetest of African antelopes, 
and I once saw a pack chasing a herd of thirty or forty buffaloes which they 
had succeeded in stampeding. The buffaloes were pounding along at a 
heavy gallop, with the wild dogs running lightly on each flank and behind 
them; and but for my appearance — the buffaloes ran right on to me and 
then swerved sharply to one side — it is quite possible that a calf might 
have been attacked and killed. 
I have seldom met with less than seven or eight wild dogs together, but 
last year I came on three in British East Africa, or rather, they came on 
me. I first heard a sort of howling, barking noise in the bush near by, and 
then saw first one and then two more wild dogs galloping towards me, 
howling or barking all the time. They came up to within less than a 
hundred yards, and then halted and stood looking at me, but soon trotted 
off into the bush again. I fancy they must have heard the noise made by 
me and my boys in walking on the hard ground, and that they came 
galloping up prepared for a chase after an antelope. Although wild dogs 
appear to be very fearless, not to say menacing, when suddenly en- 
countered, I have never heard of any well -authenticated instance of their 
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