38 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



The brown hyaena (Hytena brunnea) strandwolf of 

 the Cape Dutch is much the rarest of the three 

 species. It stands about two foot six inches at the 

 shoulder, and measures about five feet eight inches 

 from the tip of the nose to the tip of the twelve-inch 

 tail. Like its congeners and many African animals 

 of various families it is much lower at the rump 

 than at the withers; it is clothed in long rough hair, 

 shaggy on the neck, back, and tail, though not 

 forming a distinct mane. The general colour is 

 greyish, heavily clouded with rich purplish black; 

 the face is blackish brown, and the ears are blackish 

 brown suffused with purple. The throat and sides 

 of the neck are dirty yellowish white ; the general 

 grey colour becomes yellowish along the spine 1 

 The coloration of the tail seems to vary; Steedman 

 calls it uniform dark brown, but Sir Cornwallis Harris 

 describes it as black, tipped with a few red hairs. 



A melancholy interest attaches to the strandwolf, 

 since it seems to be well on the way to extermination. 

 To the naturalist all forms of life, however uncouth, 

 are interesting and fascinating; and this hyaena, 

 equally with the vanished quagga and the all but 

 vanished black wildebeest, is a type of the glorious 

 South Africa that has been, of the days when Corn- 

 wallis Harris shot elephants on the site of Pretoria, and 



1. The above description was drawn up from two living specimens 

 then before the writer ; there is probably much individual variation in 

 these hyaenas. Others have described the species as grizzled brown, 

 with dirty yellowish -white collar, sides and hips banded with deep vinous 

 brown, and black and white stripes on the legs. 



