The Striped Hyaena 



the striped species, seeing that it is the only repre- 

 sentative of the group in India. As regards the first 

 point, it will suffice to mention that these animals are 

 classed in a family by themselves — the Hycenid^e — and 

 exhibit certain indications of affinity with the Felid^e and 

 Viverrida^ as they also do with the Canidce. No one 

 who has examined a hyaena's skull will have failed to 

 recognise the enormous biting power indicated by the 

 great vertical ridge or wall of bone running down the 

 middle of the temporal region, or the bone-crushing 

 capacity of the (premolar) teeth immediately behind 

 the tusks, which, instead of the compressed form they 

 exhibit in cats and dogs, have assumed the shape of 

 blunt truncated cones, admirably adapted for the pur- 

 pose for which they are intended. So great, indeed, is 

 the power of its jaws, that a hyaena is credited with 

 being able to crack the leg -bone of a horse at a 

 single snap. 



Compared with its spotted African cousin, from 

 which it is distinguished by the characters of its skull 

 and teeth, as well as by external appearance, the striped 

 hyaena is a comparatively small beast, standing about 

 26 inches and measuring about 3^ feet from the tip of 

 the snout to the root of the tail, the tail itself averaging 

 i;^ feet in length. The general colour of the untidy 

 and shaggy fur, which is elongated into a semi-upright 

 crest or mane along the neck and back, is dirty grey, 

 marked with a number of narrow transverse tawny or 

 blackish stripes on the body and limbs. 



Not extending into the countries lying east of the 

 Bay of Bengal, unknown in Ceylon, and comparatively 

 rare in Lower Bengal, the striped hyaena ranges over 

 the greater portion of the peninsula of India, and thence 

 westward through South- Western Asia, including Bok- 

 hara and Arabia, to the Caucasus and North and East 

 Africa. It belongs therefore to the western element in 

 the fauna of India, and while fossil remains of more or 

 less nearly related species occur in the Pliocene rocks 



353 2 A 



