and graces, has a disputed and curious history. According to the New English Dictionary it first appears in 1450 in reference to William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk (Political Poems, “Rolls Series,” II. 224), “Jack Napys with his clogge hath tiede Talbot oure gentille dogge.” Suffolk’s badge was a clog and chain, such as was often used for an ape kept in captivity, and he is alluded to (ibid. 222) as “Ape clogge.” Jack Napes, Jack o’ Napes, Jackanapes, was a common name for a tame ape from the 16th century, and it seems more likely that the word is a fanciful name for a monkey than that it is due to the nickname of Suffolk.
JACKAL (Turk, chakāl), a name properly restricted to Canis
aureus, a wolf-like wild member of the dog family inhabiting
eastern Europe and southern Asia, but extended to include a
number of allied species. Jackals resemble wolves and dogs in
their dentition, the round eye-pupils, the period of gestation, and
to a large extent also in habits. The European species grows
to a height of 15 in. at the shoulders, and to a length of about
2 ft., exclusive of its bushy tail. Typically the fur is greyish-yellow,
darker on the back and lighter beneath. The range of
the common jackal (C. aureus) extends from Dalmatia to India,
the species being represented by several local races. In Senegal
this species is replaced by C. anthus, while in Egypt occurs the
much larger C. lupaster, commonly known as the Egyptian wolf.
Nearly allied to the last is the so-called Indian wolf (C. pallipes).
Other African species are the black-backed jackal (C. mesomelas),
the variegated jackal (C. variegatus), and the dusky jackal
(C. adustus). Jackals are nocturnal animals, concealing themselves
until dusk in woody jungles and other natural lurking
places, and then sallying forth in packs, which sometimes number
two hundred individuals, and visiting farmyards, villages and
towns in search of food. This consists for the most part of the
smaller mammals and poultry; although the association in packs
enables these marauders to hunt down antelopes and sheep.
When unable to obtain living prey, they feed on carrion and
refuse of all kinds, and are thus useful in removing putrescent
matter from the streets. They are also fond of grapes and other
fruits, and are thus the pests of the vineyard as well as the poultry-yard.
The cry of the jackal is even more appalling than that of
the hyena, a shriek from one member of a pack being the signal
for a general chorus of screams, which is kept up during the
greater part of the night. In India these animals are hunted
with foxhounds or greyhounds, and from their cunning and pluck
afford excellent sport. Jackals are readily tamed; and domesticated
individuals are said, when called by their masters, to wag
their tails, crouch and throw themselves on the ground, and
otherwise behave in a dog-like fashion. The jackal, like the
fox, has an offensive odour, due to the secretion of a gland at
the base of the tail.
Egyptian Jackal (Canis lupaster). |
JACKDAW, or simply Daw (Old Low German, Daha; Dutch,
Kaauw), one of the smallest species of the genus Corvus (see
Crow), and a very well known inhabitant of Europe, the
C. monedula of ornithologists. In some of its habits it much
resembles its congener the rook, with which it constantly
associates during a great part of the year; but, while the rook
only exceptionally places its nest elsewhere than on the boughs
of trees and open to the sky, the daw almost invariably chooses
holes, whether in rocks, hollow trees, rabbit-burrows or buildings.
Nearly every church-tower and castle, ruined or not, is more or
less numerously occupied by daws. Chimneys frequently give
them the accommodation they desire, much to the annoyance
of the householder, who finds the funnel choked by the quantity
of sticks brought together by the birds, since their industry in
collecting materials for their nests is as marvellous as it often
is futile. In some cases the stack of loose sticks piled up by
daws in a belfry or tower has been known to form a structure
10 or 12 ft. in height, and hence this species may be accounted
one of the greatest nest-builders in the world. The style of
architecture practised by the daw thus brings it more than the
rook into contact with man, and its familiarity is increased by
the boldness of its disposition which, though tempered by
discreet cunning, is hardly surpassed among birds. Its small
size, in comparison with most of its congeners, alone incapacitates
it from inflicting the serious injuries of which some of them
are often the authors, yet its pilferings are not to be denied,
though on the whole its services to the agriculturist are great,
for in the destruction of injurious insects it is hardly inferior to
the rook, and it has the useful habit of ridding sheep, on whose
backs it may be frequently seen perched, of some of their
parasites.
The daw displays the glossy black plumage so characteristic of the true crows, varied only by the hoary grey of the ear-coverts, and of the nape and sides of the neck, which is the mark of the adult; but examples from the east of Europe and western Asia have these parts much lighter, passing into a silvery white, and hence have been deemed by some authorities to constitute a distinct species (C. collaris, Drumm.). Further to the eastward occurs the C. dauuricus of Pallas, which has not only the collar broader and of a pure white, but much of the lower parts of the body white also. Japan and northern China are inhabited also by a form resembling that of western Europe, but wanting the grey nape of the latter. This is the C. neglectus of Professor Schlegel, and is said by Dresser, on the authority of Swinhoe, to interbreed frequently with C. dauuricus. These are all the birds that seem entitled to be considered daws, though Dr Bowdler Sharpe (Cat. B. Brit. Museum, iii. 24) associates with them (under the little-deserved separate generic distinction Coloeus) the fish-crow of North America, which appears both in structure and in habits to be a true crow. (A. N.)
JACKSON, ANDREW (1767–1845), seventh president of the
United States, was born on the 15th of March 1767, at the
Waxhaw or Warsaw settlement, in Union county, North
Carolina, or in Lancaster county, South Carolina, whither his
parents had immigrated from Carrickfergus, Ireland, in 1765.
He played a slight part in the War of Independence, and was
taken prisoner in 1781, his treatment resulting in a lifelong
dislike of Great Britain. He studied law at Salisbury, North
Carolina, was admitted to the bar there in 1787, and began to
practise at McLeansville, Guilford county, North Carolina, where
for a time he was a constable and deputy-sheriff. In 1788, having
been appointed prosecuting attorney of the western district of
North Carolina (now the state of Tennessee), he removed to Nashville, the seat of justice of the district. In 1791 he married Mrs Rachel Robards (née Donelson), having heard that her husband
had obtained a divorce through the legislature of Virginia. The