62 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

white beneath, with a dark mark on the back and sides.
Jackals associate together like wolves, forming large packs,
often amounting, in Palestine, to two or three hundred,
thus differing from the fox, which is not gregarious; their
howlings are fearful, hence their Hebrew name ayim,
“‘howlers,” which is improperly rendered, in Isaiah xiii. 22,
xxxiv. 14, and Jeremiah ii. 39, “‘ wild beasts of the islands.”
Jackals, like foxes, live in holes in the ground, and are very
numerous in ruined towns, from which circumstance, the
prophets, in describing the future desolation of a city, say
it shall become the habitation of jackals; a prediction
verified by the actual condition of the towns to which the
prophecies apply. It is evident that this animal, and not
the fox, is alluded to in the account of the marriage of
Samson in the 15th chapter of Judges, as the latter would
have been very difficult to find in so great a number, while
with the former it would be comparatively easy, from their
being found in large packs. This obviates the difficulty
which has often been felt with regard to this incident, par-
ticularly as it is not necessary to suppose that Samson
caught the whole number himself, or at one time. The
animals being tied together in pairs, was, no doubt, intended
to prevent them from retreating to their holes, before the