266 



TEETH OF CARNIVORA. 



coarser parts of animals wliicli are left by the nobler 

 beasts of prej, the hyena chiefly seeks the dead carcass, 

 and bears the same relation to the lion which the vulture 

 does to the eagle. The hyena cracks, crushes, and de- 

 vours the bones as well as the softer parts of the animals 

 it preys upon. In consequence of the quantity of bones 

 which enter into its food, the excrements consist of solid 

 balls of a yellowish-white color, and of a compact 

 earthy fracture. Such specimens of the substance, known 

 in the old " Materia Medica" by the name of " album 

 graBcum," were discovered by Dr. Buckland in the cele- 

 brated ossiferous cavern at Kirkdale. They were recog- 

 nized at first sight by the keeper of a menagerie, to 

 whom they were shown, as resembling both in form and 

 appearance the feces of the spotted hyena; and, being 

 analyzed by Dr. Wollaston, were found to be composed 

 of the ingredients that might be expected in fecal matter 

 derived from bones — viz., phosphate of lime, carbonate 

 of lime, and a very small proportion of the triple phos- 

 phate of ammonia and magnesia. This discovery of the 

 coprolites of the hyena formed, perhaps, the strongest of 

 the links in that chain of evidence by which Dr. Buck- 

 land proved that the cave at 

 Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, had 

 been, during a long succes- 

 sion of years, inhabited as 

 a den by hyenas, and that 

 they dragged into its recess- 

 es the other animal bodies, 

 whose remains, splintered, 

 and bearing marks of teeth 

 of the hyena, Avere found 

 mixed indiscriminately with 



Fijr. 70. 



their own. 



!KULL AND TEKTH OF THK MO 



