We are not certain whether these two names denote animals of different
species; we only know that the jackal (_fig. 181._) is larger, more
ferocious, and more difficult to be tamed, than the adil; but in other
respects they bear a perfect resemblance. The adil, therefore, may
possibly be the jackal become smaller, weaker, and more gentle, than
the wild race, from being tamed and rendered domestic; for the adil
is nearly the same, with respect to the jackal, as the lap-dog, or the
little water spaniel, is to the shepherd's dog. However, as this fact
is only exemplified in a few particular instances; as the jackal is
not, in general, domestic like the dog, and, as such great differences
are seldom found in a free species, we are inclined to believe that
the jackal and the adil are really two distinct species. The wolf,
the fox, the jackal, and the dog, though they approach very nigh each
other, form four distinct species. The varieties in the dog species
are very numerous; the greatest part of which seems to proceed from
their domestic state, to which they have been so long subjected. Man
has multiplied the race in this species by mixing the great with the
small, the handsome with the ugly, the long haired with the short,
&c. But there are many varieties in the dog species, independently of
those races produced by the care of man, which seem to derive their
origin from the climate. The English bull-dog, the Danish dog, the
spaniel, the Turkish dog, the Siberian dog, and others, derive their
names from the countries of which they are natives; and there seems to
be greater differences between them than between the jackal and the
adil. The jackals, therefore, may have undergone several changes from
the influence of different climates; and which supposition corresponds
with the facts we have collected. From the writings of travellers it
appears, that there are different sized jackals in all parts, that in
Armenia, Silesia, Persia, and in all that part of Asia, called the
Levant, where this species is very numerous, troublesome, and very
hurtful; they are generally about the size of our foxes; but their legs
are shorter, and the colour of their hair is of a glossy and bright
yellow; and this is the reason why they have been called the _yellow_,
or _golden wolf_. This species seem to have undergone many varieties in
Barbary, the East Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, and in other provinces
of Africa and Asia. In these hot countries they are large, and their
hair is rather of a reddish brown than of a beautiful yellow; and some
of them are of different colours. The species of the jackal is spread
all over Asia, from Armenia to Malabar; and is found also in Arabia,
Barbary, Mauritania, Guinea, and at the Cape of Good Hope. It seems to
supply the place of the wolf, which is wanting, or at least, is very
scarce in all these hot countries.
However, as both the jackal and the adil are found in the same
countries; as the species cannot have been altered by a long
continuance in a domestic state, and as there is always a considerable
difference in the size, and even in the dispositions of these animals,
we shall look on them as distinct species, until it be proved that
they intermix and produce together. Our presumption on the difference
of these two species is the better founded, as it seems to agree
with the opinion of the ancients. Aristotle, after having spoken of
the wolf, the fox, and the hyæna, gives some obscure intimations
of two other animals of the same genus, one by the name of the
_panther_, and the other by that of the _thos_. The translators of
Aristotle have interpreted _panther_ by _lupus canarius_, and _thos_
by _lupus cervarius_; that is, the dog-wolf and the stag-wolf. This
interpretation sufficiently indicates, that they considered the panther
and thos to belong to the same species. But I observed, under the
article _lynx_, that the lupus cervarius of the Latins is not the thos
of the Greeks. This lupus cervarius is the same as the chaus of Pliny,
which is our lynx, and which has not a single character that agrees
with the thos. Homer, when painting the valour of Ajax, who singly
rushes among a band of Trojans, in the midst of whom Ulysses, wounded,
was engaged; compares him to a lion that suddenly springs on a troop
of the thos, surrounding a stag at bay, disperses and drives them away
as mean and contemptible animals. This word, thos, the commentator of
Homer interprets by that of panther, which he says is a kind of weak
and timid wolf: thus, the thos and panther have been considered as the
same animal by some of the ancient Greeks. But Aristotle seems to make
a distinction between them, without, however, giving them any distinct
characters. "The thos (says he) have their internal parts like those of
the wolf; they copulate like dogs, and bring forth two, three, or four
young ones at a time, which are born with their eyes shut. The body
and tail of the thos are longer than those of the dog; his legs are
shorter, but that does not prevent him from being as swift, and he can
spring much further. The lion and the thos are enemies, because they
both live upon flesh, and seek their food from the same source; hence
disputes arise between them. The thos never attacks, and is but little
afraid of the human species. He fights with the dog and the lion,
whence the lion and the thos are never seen in the same places. The
smallest thos is esteemed the best. There are two species of them, and
some authors even make three.[A]" This is all Aristotle says concerning
the thos, and he speaks still less about the panther; for he mentions
it but in one single passage in the 35th chapter of the sixth book of
his History of Animals, and there says, "the panther produces four
young ones at a time, which are born with their eyes shut like young
wolves." By comparing these passages with that of Homer, and other
Greek authors, it seems almost certain, that the thos of Aristotle is
the great jackal, and that the panther is the little jackal, or the
adil. We find, that he admits the existence of two species of thos, and
that he speaks of the panther but once, and that when treating of the
thos. It is therefore very probable, that this panther is the small
thos; and this probability seems to become almost a certainty by the
testimony of Oppian, who places the panther among the number of small
animals, such as the cat and dormice.
[Footnote A: Arist. Hist. Anim.]
Thus, then, the thos is the jackal, and the panther the adil, and
whether they make two different species, or but one, it is certain
that every thing which the ancients have said of the thos, or panther,
applies to the jackal and the adil, and to no other animal. If,
therefore, the true signification of these names have not been known
till now, or, if they have been misinterpreted, it is because the
translators were unacquainted with these animals, and that our modern
naturalists were not better informed.
Though the species of the wolf approaches very near to that of the
dog, yet the jackal finds a place between them both. The _jackal_, or
_adil_, as Belon remarks, _is an animal between the wolf and the dog_.
With the ferocity of the wolf he joins a little of the familiarity of
the dog; his voice is a kind of howl mixed with barking and groaning.
He is more noisy than the dog, and more voracious than the wolf. He
never stirs out alone, but always in flocks of twenty, thirty, or
forty. They collect together every day to go in search of their prey.
They live principally on small animals, and make themselves formidable
to the most powerful by their number. They attack every kind of
cattle or poultry almost in the presence of men. They boldly enter
stables, sheep-folds, and cow-houses, without any signs of fear, and
when they cannot meet with any thing better, they will devour boots,
shoes, harnesses, &c. and what they have not time to consume they
take away with them. When they cannot meet with any live prey they
dig up the carcasses of men and animals. The inhabitants are obliged
to cover the graves of the dead with large thorns, to prevent these
animals from scratching and digging up the bodies, for their being
buried very deep in the earth is not sufficient, to prevent them from
accomplishing their purpose. Numbers of them work together in this,
and they accompany their labour with a doleful cry; when they are
once accustomed to human bodies they search out burial places, follow
armies, and keep close to the caravans. They may be stiled the ravens
among quadrupeds, for they will eat the most infectious flesh. Their
appetite is so constant, and so vehement, that the driest leather,
skins, flesh, excrements, or the most putrified animal, is alike
welcome to them. The hyæna has the same taste for putrid flesh, and
also digs bodies out of their graves, on which account, though very
different from each other, they have often been confounded. The hyæna
is a solitary, silent, savage animal, which, though stronger and
more powerful than the jackal, is not so obnoxious, and is contented
with devouring the dead, without troubling the living, while all
travellers complain of the cries, thefts, and gluttony of the jackal,
who unites the impudence of the dog with the cowardice of the wolf,
and participating of the nature of each, seems to be an odious animal
composed of all the bad qualities of both.[B]
[Footnote B: There is one remarkable circumstance respecting the skin
of the jackal, which Buffon has omitted; it is a great spot of a dark
grey colour, formed like a lancet, the point of which is turned towards
the tail of the animal; this spot is of a darker brown when the jackal
is young. Sparman saw the foetus of a jackal which was of a beautiful
colour; but the spot on the back was of a deep brown.]