492 
mountains, but in summer they 
frequent the marshy parts of the 
plains, which in that season are 
dry. Here they lurk among the 
high reeds to catch hares, vi- 
verrae, and gerboas, which in 
the hot season resort much to such 
spots for coolness, and to seek 
nourishment. The proprietors of 
the lands in the neighbourhood 
of the Cape Town make parties 
almost every year to hunt the 
hyenas, which are called wolf- 
huntings: of some of these par- 
ties [havemyself partaken. There 
are in the plains; about the town 
many low spots overgrown with 
large reeds: one of them is sur- 
rounded, and fire is set to the 
reeds in many places. When the 
animal becomes oppressed by the 
heat, and attempts tofquit his re- 
treat, the dogs which are sta- 
tioned about fall upon him, and. 
the sight of this combat forms the 
great amusement of the party. 
Beside the advantage of de- 
stroying these animals, another 
is derived from the reeds being 
burnt, that the ground always 
produces larger and stronger 
reeds the following year. Indeed 
if the hyenas in the neighbour- 
hood of the town are in some res- 
pects a great annoyance, they 
are not without their concomitant 
use : they eat up the carrion, and 
diminish very much the thieving, 
mischievous apes, and the crafty 
genet-cats. It is seldom that we 
hear in this thickly-inhabited 
country, ofsheep being killed by 
the hyenas, for they are by nature 
shy, and fly from mankind. No 
example is known of their having 
ever attacked a man}; and oftenas 
I have myself met them by night, 
particularly between Constantia 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1815. 
and the Wynberg, I always found 
them take to flight immediately. 
A circumstance with regard to 
these animals, held by many to 
be a fable, I can from my own 
knowledge aver to bea fact ; that 
they appear by night to be much 
larger, and of a brighter colour 
than they really are; they even 
appear wholly white. I do not 
by any means pretend to account 
for this phenomenon, but I have 
been myself convinced by my 
own eyes of its truth. The na- 
tural colour of the species is a 
dirty white with irregular black 
spots; its height is about three 
feet and a half, its length about 
four feet; its hair is stiff and 
bristly, but longer and thicker on 
the back than in any other part; 
the head is less pointed than that 
of the striped hyena, but is car- 
ried in the same way, bent down, 
with the neck arched; and the 
creature is characterised by the 
same evil and malignant eye. It 
isasserted of this species of hyena, 
as of that in the north of Africa, 
that it partakes of both sexes, or 
changes its sex: {but this idea 
arises. solely from the circum. 
stance, that often whenvery young 
it is extremely difficult to deter- 
mine of which sex it is. Mr. Fre- 
derick Kirsten had once the good- 
ness to send me twin foetuses, 
taken out of the body of a female 
hyena which was killed at his 
estate in the Wynberg. No dif- 
ference whatever was to be dis- 
cerned in their exterior, so that 
it was impossible to determine to 
which sex they belonged: when 
dissected, however, it was very - 
evident that the one was a male, 
the other afemale. They were 
both of a dark grey colour, had 
1 AL LED EEDA 
et Sonsteeete: 
Lee 
‘ enadiieall 
cnateindetieen atl 
ok th ek ee Se ae 
