-^ Fauna : Mammals 



of Northern Liberia. This probability has also been mentioned, 

 quite independent ot my own researches, by French explorers. 

 The Mandingos who gave me information about the creatures 

 of the country beyond the forest were positive in asserting the 

 existence there of the spotted hyaena, and some of them in 

 their stories discriminated between a spotted and a striped 

 hyaena, so that both forms may be found co-existing on the 

 Mandingo Plateau, as they are known to do in a band of 

 Africa stretching right across the continent from the basin of 



the Gambia to Kilimanjaro.^ The Mandingos call the hyaena 

 djawa and djani (or diaiva, diani). It is possible that the 

 first term is applied to the spotted and the second to the 

 striped form. 



But in addition to their stories of these two types of known 

 hyaenas, they persist in describing a third kind, said to be much 



' An example of the striped sub-genus of hyaenas — H. bntnnea — also reappears 

 in South Africa, co-existing there likewise with the spotted form. 

 VOL. n 



705 



13 



