*775- may be allied to the more civilized little dogs which fo frequently engrofs the favour and attention of the fair fex. It is poffible, that there is yet another fpecies of wilds dogs in Africa, as a peafant of the name of Po t t g ie t e r informed me, that in MdJJel-bay he had feen an animal of the lize and ihape o f a common dog, but that it had larger ears, and was marked white under the belly, but was of a dark colour every where elfe. His companion had iliot at it, but miffed fire. The tiger-woif is a much more common beail of prey, and one that from the very beginning, as well as throughout the whole o f my journey, occaiioned me fo much anxiety and fear for the fafety of my cattle, and confequently for the happy conclufion o f my expedition, that I cannot defer any longer the defcription of fo formidable an animal. By the colonifts they are called tiger-woif This is that hitherto unknown animal, which Mr. Pe n n a n t , in his Synopfis o f Quadrupeds, page 16 a, N® 1 19 , and Hiftory o f Quadrupeds, page 250, N° 149, has briefly defcribed and given a drawing of, by the name of the fpotted bytsna, a different fpecies from the canis- byana of L in n a. us. The night, or the dufk of the evening only, is the time in which thefe animals feek their prey, after which they are ufed to roam about both feparately and in flocks. But one o f the moft unfortunate properties, of this creature is, that it cannot keep its own counfel. The language of it cannot eafily be taken down upon paper; however, with a view to make this fpecies of wolf better known than it has been hitherto, I ihall obferve, that it is by means of a found fomething like the following, aauae, and fonaetimes ooaoy ooao, yelled out with a tone o f deipair, (at the interval of fome minutes- between each howl,) that nature obliges this, the moft voracious animal in all Africa, to difcover itfelf, juft as it does the moft venomous of all the American ferpents, by the rattle in its tail, itfelf to warn every one to avoid its mortal bite. This fame rattle-Jnake would feem, in confequence of thus betraying its own deiigns, and of its great inactivity, (to be as it were nature’s ftep- child,) if, according to many credible accounts, it had not the wonderous property o f charming its prey by fixing its eye upon it. The like is affirmed alfo of the tiger-woif. This creature, it is true, is obliged to give information ■ againft itfelf; but on the other hand, is actually pofleffed of the peculiar gift of being enabled, in fome meafure, to imitate the cries o f other animals; by which means this arch-deceiver is fometimes lucky enough to beguile and attraCt calves, foals, lambs and other animals. As to the howlings o f this creature, they are, in faCt, as much the natural confequences of hunger, as gaping is of a difpo- fition to fleep; and as the flowing of the faliva, or the water coming into the mouth, is of the fight o f fome delicacy, : which excites the appetite. There muft, indeed, be fome phyfical caufe for this. The very hollownefs of the found, or fome other quality of it which I cannot well defcribe, induces me to conjecture, that it proceeds from the empti- nefs of the ftomach. In the mean while, that a diipo- lition to this yelling is abfolutely implanted in the animal by nature, I am apt to conclude from the inftance o f a young tiger-woif that I faw at the Cape, which, though it had been brought up tame from a whelp by a Chineie refident *775- July.
27f 72-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above