THE HYENA AND THE HUNTING DOG 257 



the lower carnassial tooth lacks a well-developed heel. The 

 skull is wider, shorter-snouted, and has a narrower mesop- 

 terygoid fossa. The sexual organs of the female are very- 

 peculiar and resemble in external appearance those of the 

 male — a condition quite unique among carnivorous mam- 

 mals. It is owing to this peculiarity that the animals are 

 believed by most of the negroes and many sportsmen to 

 be hermaphrodite. Externally, the spotted hyenas differ 

 from the striped by the small size of the ears, the absence 

 of a dorsal mane of long, stiff hair extending from the nape 

 to the tip of the tail, and the spotted character of the coat. 

 In the spotted hyena the female exceeds the male in size, a 

 sexual peculiarity not found in the striped hyena or in any 

 other existing carnivore. The young at birth are uniform 

 seal-brown, without any indication of spots or markings of 

 any sort. After a few months have passed, their coloration 

 becomes paler in spots and assumes gradually the heavily 

 spotted coat characteristic of the immature. Two young are 

 produced at a birth. The genus Crocuta is much more highly 

 specialized than Hycsna, and is quite catlike in dental char- 

 acters and skull shape. A single living species, crocuta, is 

 known, which is confined in distribution to Ethiopia or Af- 

 rica south of the Sahara Desert. Several geographical races 

 have been described; but, owing to the great individual 

 variation to which some of them are subject, their status is 

 at present quite uncertain. During the Pleistocene age a 

 species very closely related to the existing one occurred in 

 southern Europe as far west as the British Isles and also 

 on the Mediterranean coast of Africa and eastward as far 

 as India. 



The spotted hyena was common through East Africa 

 and Uganda. Its strange cry was heard on most nights, 

 wherever we were, and we often came across it in the day- 

 time; for, although most active after nightfall, it frequently 

 prowled abroad in the mornings and afternoons, in lonely 

 lands. Generally, however, in the daytime it retired to its 

 lair, which might be a cave or a hole under a stone, or 



