44 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



Africa, as the strandwolf at that time was thought to 

 be entirely confined to the seashore. In 1835, how- 

 ever, Steedman found it some distance inland. 1 To 

 Sir Andrew Smith is due the credit of recognising this 

 hyaena not merely as distinct from the spotted species, 

 but also from the striped one (Hyczna striata)'? in 

 view of its indefinite markings, the term " clouded 

 hyaena " might well be employed to denote the 

 strandwolf. Sir Andrew kept one alive and published 

 a figure and description of the new animal in the 

 fifteenth volume of the Transactions of the Linnaean 

 Society. Steedman's book of travels also contain a 

 figure of this "new species of hyaena only known 

 from the description of Sir Andrew Smith." The 

 latter illustration will be familiar to many ; it has 

 doubtless done duty as a " striped hyaena" in many 

 a book on natural history ! 



The affinities of the brown hyaena are with the 



1. It is remarkable that Belon in the sixteenth century called the 

 hyaena the " marine wolf " almost the same title being afterwards 

 applied to the brown species by the Dutch settlers. One wonders 

 whether the brown hyaena was known to Europeans before Sparrman's 

 day ; but the very early naturalists often confused distinct forms together, 

 so that it is frequently difficult to recognise the actual species intended 

 in their descriptions. 



2. Early in the nineteenth century, long before Sir Andrew Smith 

 described the brown hyaena, the Paris museum contained a remarkable 

 specimen which puzzled Cuvier. " There is in the French museum," said 

 he, "an Hyaena whose country is unknown, on which I am in doubt 

 whether to call it a variety of the striped Hyaena or to consider it a 

 distinct species ;" the italics are our own. The hairs of this animal were 

 long over the whole of the back and flanks, being whitish grey at the 

 base, blackish brown thence to the tip ; so that the whole fur appeared of 

 a uniform brown colour. There were some transverse whitish brown 

 bands on the fore legs and hind feet. If, as seems likely, this was really 

 a strandwolf, it should probably rank as the type specimen. 



