118 GUIDE TO THE 
much paler in the colour of its coat since its arrival in this 
country, and this will be evident if it is compared with the 
fox in the adjoining cage, which has only been a few 
months in India. The intelligence and cunning of the fox 
are proverbial ; and the following anecdote is an illustra¬ 
tion of its intelligence :— 
‘ A farmer in Scotland looking out of his window, at 
a very early hour on a summer morning, saw a fox 
carrying off a large duck which he had stolen. He was 
running away with it across a field, at one side of which 
he encountered a stone dyke, about four feet high, over 
which he attempted to jump with his prize. The wall, 
however, was too much for him, as he failed to clear 
it after three attempts. Finding himself foiled he sat 
down and looked at the wall, and then seizing the duck in 
his mouth he stretched himself on to the wall as far as he 
could reach with his fore-paws, and pushed the duck’s bill 
into a crevice. He then sprang on to the top of the wall, 
stretched down his head and pulled the duck up, dropped 
it on the other side, jumped down himself, picked it up, 
and trotted off. ’ 
The Jackal is closely allied to the wolf, but is a smaller 
animal, and its muzzle is more pointed. It undergoes 
considerable changes in its coat, depending on the 
seasons, as it becomes darker and richer in colour in 
the cold season, when the black on the back becomes 
more defined. Similar changes of colour occur also in 
the two adjoining jackals from Africa, and even in a more 
marked degree. At certain seasons, Canis lateralis seems 
almost entirely to loose the side-stripes from which it 
derives its specific name, whilst, at other times, they are 
most pronounced. A like change also comes over the 
