60 DESULTORY SKETCHES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



mals, which latter would be more liable to suffer from their depreda- 

 tions, if the continual melancholy howling of their enemy failed to 

 convey a timely intimation of his approach. Even when rebuffed, 

 however, they still linger, and watch their opportunity of making a 

 covert attack, requiring corresponding vigilance on the part of the 

 assailed. It is well that their courage is disproportionate to their 

 formidable armature. " They are restless, wandering beings, that 

 prowl about from dusk till morning, and " make night hideous'* 

 with their incessant dismal howling, which only stops when they 

 have at length discovered a carcass or other prey ; and like the rest 

 of the carrion-feeding mammalia, they disinter bodies from the 

 grave, which has given rise to numerous superstitions connected 

 with them. Cunning and suspicious in the extreme, they examine 

 every object with which they are not perfectly familiar with the 

 utmost distrust ; and there are consequently no animals more diffi- 

 cult to outwit by snares.* They steal about human habitations 

 where all is quiet within, and but too frequently gain admittance to 

 the insecure dwellings of the Africans, when, disregarding calves 

 and other tender live stock that are customarily brought in at night, 

 and oftentimes passing by a fire, they mostly prefer to take an in- 

 fant from the mother's kaross (doubtless on account of its being 

 more easily removed), and this in such a gentle and cautious manner 

 that the bereaved parent is commonly unconscious of her loss until 

 the cries of her child have reached her from without, when a close 

 prisoner in the jaws of the monster. t If an entrance cannot be 



• " The more common methods employed against beasts of prey," writes 

 Dr. A. Smith, of the Spotted Hyaena, " such as spring guns, traps, &c. do 

 not succeed in his case. During his nocturnal wanderings, he minutely ex- 

 amines every object that presents itself to his notice with which he is not 

 perfectly familiar ; and if he see occasion to suspect that it can injure hira 

 he will turn back, and make his way in an opposite direction. Thus, cords 

 or leathern thongs, which are often laid across the footpaths the Hyaena is 

 accustomed to travel upon, and which are attached to the triggers of loaded 

 guns, with the design that his contact with the thong may cause the dis- 

 charge of the gun in his direction, are very carefully examined by him ; and 

 the usual result of his examination is, his deciding against trusting himself in 

 contact with them. The Cape farmers have so often observed this result, 

 that they now very rarely attempt his destruction by such means, but occa- 

 sionally succeed by substituting for cords the delicate stems of creeping 

 plants, which are regarded by him without suspicion until he has once ac- 

 tually suffered through them. Many other ingenious methods, suggested 

 by the necessity of the case, have been adopted by the farmers for the de- 

 struction of Hyaenas." — Catalogue of the late African Museum. 



f Mr. Steedman, in his Wanderings and Adventures in the Interior of South 



