THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
attacking human beings; nor, whenever I met with any of these animals 
when in company with South African Bushmen, did I ever notice that these 
wild people showed any fear of them. If suddenly met with in long grass, 
wild dogs will keep continually jumping up to get a good view. On such 
occasions they continually give vent to a kind of bark, sounding something 
like “ hoo-hoo.” I have only once seen a wild dog alone, and this animal 
ran up to and twice bit a large sable antelope bull in the flank before it 
became aware of the presence of myself and party, when it at once ran off. 
It is noteworthy that on this occasion this wild dog made snapping bites 
at the thin skin of the flank, but did not hold on for an instant. Its object 
evidently was to tear a hole through the skin and get at the entrails, which 
it would then have gradually torn out. Once, with two friends and a lot of 
our wagon dogs, I galloped after a pack of wild dogs which ran out of a 
dry river bed close alongside of us. Whether these wild dogs were so 
gorged with a recent heavy feed or not I cannot say, but we galloped right 
amongst them with the greatest ease, and our dogs caught two of them. 
I rode backwards and forwards over a big male several times before 
shooting it. Every time the horse was close on to it, it rolled over on its 
back and let the horse jump over it. This experience is the more curious 
as I have seen wild dogs run up to antelopes, which I have never been able 
to overtake on horseback. The female wild dogs bring forth from four to 
six whelps in the deserted burrows of ant-eaters (aardvarks), which they 
enlarge themselves. 
Of the several species of jackals inhabiting Africa, the best known, as 
it is by far the handsomest, is the black-backed or silver jackal ( Canis 
mesomelas ), which ranges through the whole of the eastern half of that 
continent from the Cape Colony to Abyssinia. This jackal frequents open 
grass plains or thinly forested districts, and its sharp, barking cry is one 
of the commonest sounds to disturb the peace of an African night. It 
preys upon the remains of lion kills and whatever birds and small animals 
it can catch, as well as upon locusts, eggs and reptiles. It hunts both by 
day and night, and, being possessed of great speed and endurance, can on 
occasion run down and kill such small antelopes as half- grown steinboks 
or duikers. On the sheep farms of the Cape Colony many lambs were 
destroyed annually by black-backed jackals before the numbers of these 
fierce little animals were greatly reduced by the use of strychnine. When 
chased by dogs, these jackals often take refuge in antbear holes, where 
also the females bring forth their young. 
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