HYENA SPELRA. 147 
been attempted to be invalidated by subsequent statements, * 
founded, however, on imperfect observation. of the habits 
of living Hyzenas, which statements later and better testi- 
mony has disproved.+ The best informed naturalists fully 
concur in the truth of the picture which Dr. Buckland has 
given of the habits of the recent species. 
“The strength of the Hyzna’s jaw is such that, in at- 
tacking a dog, he begins by biting off his leg at a single 
snap. The capacity of his teeth for such an operation is 
sufficiently obvious from simple inspection ; and consistent 
with this strength of teeth and jaw is the state of the 
muscles of his neck, being so full and strong that, in early 
times, this animal was fabled to have but one cervical 
vertebra. They live by day in dens, and seek their prey 
by night, having large prominent eyes, adapted, like those 
of the rat and mouse, for seeing in the dark. To animals 
of such a class, our cave at Kirkdale would afford a most 
convenient habitation, and the circumstances we find deve- 
loped in it are entirely consistent with the habits above 
enumerated.” 
Cuvier emphatically sanctions this happy application of 
the natural history of the Hyena to elucidate the pheno- 
mena of the Kirkdale cavern, which, he says, might seem 
* Wernerian Transactions, vol. i. p. 385. 
+ That of Colonel Sykes, quoted in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. 
xii. p. 315. M. de Blainville, in the course of his argument against the conclu- 
sions of Dr. Buckland, adopted by Cuvier, says, in reference to the inference de- 
duced by Dr. Buckland from the minute fragments of the enamel of teeth, which 
he detected unaltered in the Coprolites of the Kirkdale cavern: “ But I have yet 
to learn that any animal feeds upon teeth, and can even digest them ; so that this 
peculiarity might afford an additional objection against the opinion of M. Buck- 
land, that the bones of Mammifers, found in great quantity in the cave of Kirk- 
dale, with those of Hyzenas, had been brought there by them, and not at all by 
inundations.” — “ Or, je ne connois encore aucune animal qui se nourrisse de 
dents et puisse méme les digérer ; en sorte que cette particularité pourrait étre 
une objection de plus a exposer contre Vopinion de M. Buckland, que les os de 
Mammiferes trouvés en grande quantité dans la cayerne de Kirkdale, avee ceux 
ith 
