64 DESULTORY SKETCHES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



the next genus (Proteles), which negatives the supposition that the 

 digestion of bones required the medicament adverted to ; while it is 

 not altogether consonant with the reason assigned by Cuvier for the 

 shortness of the intestinal canal in the Carnivora generally, '* a 

 cause de la nature substantielle de leurs aliments, et pour eviter la 

 putrefaction que la chair eprouverait en sejournant trop long-temps 

 dans un canal prolonge :" the Hyaenas and Protle subsisting nor- 

 mally on flesh already putrifying, which might accordingly be in- 

 ferred, from the augmentation of chyle-absorbing surface, to yield 

 a proportionally reduced amount of nutriment. 



There are three living species of this genus, very obviously dis- 

 tinct from each other. 



The Spotted Hyaena 

 (H. crocuta, Schreber ; H. maculata, Temm. ; H, capensis, Desm.) 



Is the largest of them, and also, as we have seen, the most typical, 

 in so far as it deviates furthest from the ordinary dentition of the 

 Digitigrada ; while in other respects it is equally characteristic with 

 its congeners. It is at once distinguished by its numerous round 

 black or reddish brown spots, upon a pale fulvous ground, its broad 

 ears, and inconspicuous mane : its whiskers are less developed than 

 in the others. 



Length, from nose to base of tail, four feet and a half ; the tail, 

 sixteen inches : height at the shoulder two feet eight inches, and at 

 the croup about two feet three. General colour pale fulvous, in- 

 clining more or less to rufous, with numerous black and sometimes 

 reddish-brown spots on the body and limbs, alike in no two indivi- 

 duals;* the hairs on the hind neck and withers forming a short 

 reversed mane, and the lower two-thirds of the tail tufted with long 

 black hairs ; nose and muzzle black. " The ground colour," ob- 

 serves Dr. Smith, "in young individuals, is whitish, instead of pale 

 fulvous ; the spots are deep black, and the under parts quite black," 

 instead of dull white. " In still younger ones, the spots are often not 

 distinct, the surface exhibiting rather a brindled appearance ; and in 

 very young ones the fur is of a very dark, dull slate-colour, verging 



• In Cuvier's Ossemens Fossiles, two varieties are indicated as respects the 

 colouring ; but we have vainly sought to identify these varieties by compar- 

 ing the descriptions of them with specimens, which latter present great indi- 

 vidual variation. 



