204 
THE MAMMALS OF EGYPT. 
CANIS, Linn. 
Canis, Linn. Syst. Nat. x. i. 1758, p. 38. 
This genus is here to be taken as including only the Wolves and Jackals as well as 
the Domestic Dogs. Dr. Blanford, in the ‘ Fauna of British India,’ says that the Dogs 
may be distinguished from the Foxes [Vulpes) by the pupil of the eye being round, 
and in their having generally 10, more rarely 8, mammae. 
Dentition : i. c. p pm. m. g = 42. 
A scent-gland on the dorsal surface of the tail, from which the characteristic “ doggy ” 
smell arises. 
On Jackals in general. 
In describing the jackal of Senegal, which he named C. antlius, Cuvier ^ says that it 
could not be confounded with the jackal properly so called, that is, the Indian jackal, 
C. aureus^ which he had previously described and characteristically figured, nor with 
C. mesomelas, as it had not the dorsal marking of that species, while it was much larger 
than the Vulpes corsac. The introduction of V. corsac as a basis of comparison, and the 
statement that his C. antlius was much larger than it, suggests that hewms dealing with 
an animal of not any great size. Cretzschmar’s figure in EiippeU’s ‘ Atlas ’ of a so-called 
C. antlius was founded on three specimens from the Bahr-el-Azrek country, and is a 
considerable modification of Cuvier’s figure of the Senegal jackal, the tip of the tail of 
which is described as having only a few black hairs, whereas the tail of Cretzschmar’s 
figure is wholly black in the latter two-thirds; and besides, this latter figure, instead 
of having the brownish-grey saddle that occupies nearly the whole of the back of typical 
C. antlius, has on the sides of that region the yellowish and white spots characteristic 
of C. mriegatus. 
In the British Museum there are two skulls of adult male jackals from Tunis 
(46.10.30.155 and 48.1.8.1), both distinguished by the expanded zygomatic arch ; like the 
jackal from Egypt, these specimens have large teeth, which, however, vary somewhat in 
size. In the Tunis skull (46.10.30.155) the fourth upper premolar is 20*4 mm. long, or 
only IT mm. shorter than the same tooth in a male C. ^allipes, commonly known as the 
Indian w'olf. No. 91.2.5.1, from Maskat, in Arabia; this is evidently the skull of an 
animal of the same age as the specimen from Gizeh, and viewed from the under 
surface they are remarkably alike, although that of C. jpallipeshdiS a broader palate and 
altogether more powerful teeth ; but the difference between them would appear to be 
due chiefly to the fact that C. palligjes is evidently a larger animal than the Egyptian 
^ Mamm. 1820. 
