256 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



in the highland race. The tail varies much in length, 

 ranging in adults from 12X to 14^^ inches. The skulls 

 show considerable variation in size and shape, quite equal- 

 ling in this respect the spotted hyena. In a series of 

 seven female skulls the range in length is S}^ to 8^ inches, 

 and in breadth 5^ to 5^ inches. The male skulls show 

 less variation, being usually g}4 inches long by 6 inches 

 wide. The flesh measurements of an old male from the 

 Northern Guaso Nyiro River were: head and body, 42 

 inches; tail, 13^^ inches; hind foot, Sj4 inches; ear, sH 

 inches. The females average somewhat less than these 

 dimensions. 



Many years ago Latreille described a race, hienomelas, 

 from the Atbara River or northern slopes of the Abyssinian 

 highlands, which may upon the study of further speci- 

 mens be found to be indistinguishable from the present 

 race, in which case the latter name would give way for the 

 older one, proposed by Latreille. Recently Lonnberg has 

 given a new name to the striped hyenas of the Northern 

 Guaso Nyiro River, but the large series in the National 

 Museum from that locality are quite indistinguishable in 

 color or other characters from the description of bergeri, the 

 type of which was secured at the extreme southwestern 

 limit of the race, near the base of the Elgeyo Escarpment. 



Spotted Hyenas 



Crocuta 



Crocuta Kamp, 1828, Oken's Isis, XXI, Heft XI, p. 1145; type Hycena 



crocuta. 



The spotted hyenas have by most writers been com- 

 bined with the striped in a common genus, Hycena. A 

 careful comparison of the two groups, however, leads to the 

 discovery of many differences of a fundamental character 

 and shows a really wide gap in structure between the two 

 hyenas. There are decided differences in dentition, in 

 skull shape, in the genital organs, in body shape, and hair 

 growth, any of which are of generic importance. The 

 spotted hyena has the dentition much more reduced, the 

 molar being a mere rudiment or missing altogether, while 



