or the leopard. The Jackal, it has been thought, is in the habit of finding prey for his superiors in the desert or the forest; and he is thence sometimes called the lion's provider.

Though fierce and shy in a wild state, the Jackal, when taken, becomes mild and docile. In a description of the Tower Menagerie, in 1829, it is said of the Jackal ; "The specimen in the Tower is remarkably quiet it is a male, and has been a resident for upwards of three years."

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The Jackal is supposed by some writers to be mentioned in the Old Testament under the name of the Fox,

an opinion in a great degree supported by a passage in the tenth and eleventh verses of the sixty-third Psalm :

"Those also that seek the hurt of my soul; they shall go under the earth, let them fall upon the edge of the sword, that they may be a portion for foxes." The Hebrew word translated, Fox, means an animal which burrows or makes holes in the earth. Now the fox does not prey upon dead bodies; but in those countries in which Jackals abound, it is found necessary to dig the graves very deep, and to cover them over with thorns to prevent the bodies from being dug up and devoured.

THERE is no creature so frequently mentioned for its cunning as the Fox. Its sly and suspicious appearance agrees with its habits and manners. Crafty to a wonderful degree, it thrives by nightly theft; and since the period in which wolves abounded in this country, the Fox has been the worst pest among the young lambs and the poultry. Its plan generally is to form its burrow near a wood, in the neighbourhood of some village, or well-stocked farm: it then prowls abroad at night, and having scented its prey, moves forward, trailing its body along the ground. It leaps over walls, or creeps in underneath, and having reached the objects

of its attack, puts them all quickly and silently to death. These it hides under bushes or herbage, or carries off to its kennel. If other food fails it, it makes war against birds, rats, field-mice, serpents, lizards, toads, and moles, and in this respect is often found useful to the farmer. We must not omit to mention the tenderness with which the female Fox watches over her young and provides for their wants. This maternal feeling has often been found to prevail over the natural wiliness of her character.

When pressed by hunger, the Fox devours roots and insects, and even shell-fish. In France and Italy it does great mischief by feeding on grapes. Its taste for these luxuries has been noticed in the ancient and well-known fable of "The Fox and the Grapes," -words which have since passed into a proverb. The various tribes of animals seem to be leagued against the Fox; and it is probable that its race would have been long ago extinguished in England, were it not required for the chase. It affords pastime to the huntsman: but we have no right to distress and torment any animal for our sport. Its fur is valuable.

We find this animal referred to in the New Testament in very affecting terms. Our Lord, in alluding to the privations which he underwent for man's sake, said, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head."* The craftiness and rapacity of Herod are reproved in the words, "Go ye, and tell that Fox," &c.t

"THE keen Hyæna, fellest of the fell," as this creature is styled by the poet Thomson, is generally of the size of a large dog. It is a gloomy, ill-looking animal; and its manners and habits correspond with its appearance. The striped Hyæna, represented in the engraving, inhabits Barbary, Egypt, Abyssinia, Nubia, Syria, and Persia. The spotted Hyæna (Hyæna crocuta) is chiefly found in South Africa. In their own countries, they live in caverns and rocky places; and prowl about in the night to feed on the remains of

dead animals, or on whatever living prey they can seize.

When other food fails, tender shoots of trees.

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they live on plants and the Their cry is loud and dismoaning of a human voice;

agreeable it is like the and some of the inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope say that the animal thus sometimes deceives people, and succeeds in carrying away lambs, calves, and sheep from the folds. Its disposition and form are implied in the name by which it is sometimes known, the Tiger-wolf.

Comparatively few instances have occurred of the Hyæna being tamed. Mr. Pennant, however, reports that he saw one as tame as a dog: Buffon says that a tame Hyæna was shown at Paris; and Shaw speaks of having seen the natives take Hyænas by the ears, the creatures offering no other resistance than that of drawing back. Ill tempers and bad manners undoubtedly become worse by the harshness and neglect of superiors; and the mingled fear and disgust with which the Hyæna has always been viewed have probably tended to increase its ferocity.

Bruce, in his Travels in Abyssinia, states some curious facts regarding this creature. "The Hyæna,"

he says,

was the plague of our lives, the terror of our night walks, and the destruction of our mules and asses."