File:Brehm's Life of animals - a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia (1896) (20404671312).jpg

Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim1896breh (find matches)
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Pechuel-Loesche, Edward, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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200 THE BEASTS OF PREY. Man. Schwcinfurth saw a Hyaena Dog in a Scriba in the Bongo country, "which was thoroughly tamed, and was as docile as a Dog with its master." In 1859 I had the pleasure of finding an admirably kept and nearly full-grown Hunting Dog in Leipzig. I have seen several later and have also kept a few myself. Their distinctive traits seem to me to be a boisterous mischievousness, and an indomitable habit of biting, perhaps without the intention of hurting anvbody and only as an outlet to the fidgety live- liness of their ever active spirits. As soon as a Hyaena Dog is excited, its every nerve quivers and moves. Its remarkably active disposition first as- sumes the semblance of exaggerated mirth, and then, a moment later, strikes one as a savage, sanguinary mania for biting. Grandville represents a Wolf as declaring: " Barking is of no avail; one has to bite."
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HYJENA DOG. The slender, long limbed animal in the picture, sometimes also called the Cape Hunting Dog, is the representative of a distinct sub-order of the Wolf species. As will be seen from the picture, it is hand- somely marked, has long Hound-like limbs, a tail with a bushy tip, and a form that suggests both agility and Strength, qualities that are requisite to the tracking of the Antelope, which is the favorite prey of these wild Dogs. (Cams pictus.) If he had known the Hyama Dog, he would, doubt- less, have ascribed this sentiment to that animal. The Indian Sykes has described the Indian Wild Wild Dog or Dog, or Kolsun, which he considered Kolsun. ( \) c progenitor of all domesticated Dogs. This animal bears, according to his account, a greater resemblance to the Greyhound than to the Wolf or Jackal, and belongs to a third sub-order of the Wolves (Cyou), whose range is co-extensive with that of the Tiger. It has much the same propor- tions as a medium-sized Greyhound and its hair is of uniform thickness, rather short on the body but long on the tail. The color is a beautiful brownish or russet red merging into brownish gray, light on the under surface of the body and dark on the snout, ears, feet and extremity of the tail. This Dog is called Son-kam-kutta, Djangli, Kol- sun, Kolsa, etc., in India, Buansu, etc., in the Hima- layas (Canis or Cyon dukhunensisand Primavus), and is found all over the Himalaya country from the val- ley of the upper Indus and Cashmere as far east as Assam, in eastern Thibet, and in all the woody re- gions of East India. The Kolsun or Buansu is a genuine arboreal animal and inhabits principally extensive forests, but some- times is also found in jungles; while in the northern and elevated portions of his native country, where forests are lacking, he has to content himself with the open country and rocks. He does not seem to be plentiful anywhere, and as he drives the game away and makes it very restless by his mode of hunting, he does not stay long in one locality. He hunts in packs, which were formerly said to comprise fifty or sixty of these animals, but which, according to mod- ern observers, seldom include twenty, and gener- ally number only from two to twelve. The Indian Wild Dog usually pursues his game noiselessly, and his voice is heard only at rare intervals. He does not bark, but the sound he makes is rather a plaintive whine. All accounts agree as to his exceedingly good hunting qualities. In his mode of hunting he resem- bles the Hyaena Dog. As soon as the pack has found some animal that will serve for prey, they pursue it with the utmost persever- ance, and sometimes divide into smaller packs in order to cut off its escape on all sides; and are thus said to be able to overtake even the fleetest - footed Stag. Their chief attack is not made from the front and is not directed at the throat, but rather at the flanks and the soft hinder part of the body, which they tear by rapid bites during the chase, so that the intes- tines protrude and the ani- mal soon succumbs. The Malay The Malay Wild Dog, or Wild Dog or AdJ°9- Adjag (Cants or Cyon rntila?is) is smaller and weaker than his Indian relative and has a yel- lowish Fox-red color, which is lightest on the under surface of the body. The tail is tipped with black. The Adjag does not seem to differ in any marked degree from the Kolsun, except that there are no accounts to the effect that he preys upon large and strong animals. He is a native of Sumatra and Java, ranging, so far as his haunts are now known, from the sea level to about three thousand feet above, preying on rather peculiar game on the sea beach, as Jung- huhn's observations show: "On the 14th of May, 1846, I came out of the bushes covering the coast of the Tandjung-Sodong. Looking at the wide beach before me, I thought I gazed on a battlefield. Hun- dreds of skeletons of huge Tortoises lay strewn on the sand. Some had been bleached by the sun so as to present nothing but smooth bones, some were still filled with decaying, foul-smelling intestines, and some were yet fresh and bloody ; but all lay on their

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