141 



HY^ENIXA. 



.HY^ENINA. 



calves in the area, and even by the fire, and to take the children 

 from under the mother's kaross, and this in such a gentle and cautious 

 manner, that the poor parent has been unconscious of her loss until 

 the cries of her little innocent have reached her from without when 

 a close prisoner in the jaws of the monster." Mr. Shepstoue then 

 particularises two instances within his own knowledge, one of a boy 

 about ten years of age, and the other of a little girl about eight, 

 who had been carried off by this species, and wretchedly mangled, 

 but recovered by the attention of Mr. Shepstoue and his friends. 

 Notwithstanding this ferocity, the Spotted Hyaena has, it is stated, 

 been domiciliated in the houses of the peasantry, " among whom," 

 says Mr. Bennett, " he is preferred to the dog himself for attachment 

 to hia master, for general sagacity, and even, it is said, for his quali- 

 fications for the chase." 



H. villosa the Strand-Wolf. In a communication to the Zoological 

 Society of London (1833), Dr. Andrew Smith stated his belief that 

 the Striped Hyaena does not inhabit South Africa ; its place being 

 occupied by the H. rUlosa, which bears, when young, considerable 

 resemblance to that species. H. villosa was first described by Dr. 

 Smith in the ' Transactions of the Linnaean Society." This animal was 

 considered by Cuvier as identical with L'Hyene Brune (H. brunnea of 

 Thunberg), which is quoted by M. Lesson as Hyene Rousse, (II. rufa, 

 of Cuvier). In the list, of the specimens of Mammalia, in the British 

 Museum, this animal is regarded as a variety of If. ttriata. The 

 following are the dimensions of a specimen in Mr. Steedman's col- 

 lection : 



Feet. Inches. 



From the nose to the root of the tail . . . 4 



Height at the siioulder 2 



Height at the croup 2 



Breadth of head between the ears . . .0 



Length of head from nose to occiput . . . 



Length of the ear. 



Length of the tail to the extremity of the vertebrae 



Length of the tail with hair 1 



4 

 4 





 54 

 10 

 5 



94 

 2 



Strand- Wolf (Ifyama rillom). 



The hair is described as remarkably long, coarse, and shaggy over 

 the whole body of the animal ; whilst on the head, ears, and extremi- 

 tii-s alone it is short and crisp. Its length on the back and sides is 

 8 or 1 inches, and it does not form a long mane on the spine, as is the 

 case with the common Striped Hytena. The general colour of the head, 

 body, and extremities, ig grizzled brown, from the long hairs being 

 grayish at the root* and brown at the points, marked on the sides and 

 hips with large but rather indistinct transverse bands of a deep 

 vinous brown-colour. The legs, particularly those before, which as in 

 other Hyaenas, are much longer than those behind, are marked with 

 transverse black bands much more distinct and apparent than those 

 on the body. The upper lip in furnished with remarkably long 

 bristly black moustaches, and the tail, which is thickly covered with 

 long hair, and of greater length than in the common Hyaena, is uni- 

 form dark-brown. The fore-arms and thighs are darker than other 

 parts of the animal, and a large collar of dirty yellowish-white sur- 

 rounds the throat and extends up the sides of the neck, occupying 

 the entire space between the setting on of the head and shoulders. 

 Under each eye is a large irregular black patch ; the chin is black also, 

 and a narrow band of the same colour marks the junction of the 

 head and neck, bordered by the dirty white collar above mentioned. 

 The ear* are large, erect, and rather pointed. The individual was 

 aged, all tike teeth being much worn : the two exterior incisors were 

 much larger than the others, and had the form and size of small 

 canine*. A young one, 10 inches in length, also in Mr. Steedman's 

 collection, exhibited all t c general characters of the aged specimen, 

 ucepting that the hair wa* shorter and more woolly. (Steedman.) 

 Thu animal inhabits the sea-coast throughout the whole extent of 



Southern Africa, but is by no means so common as the Spotted 

 Hyama. The young specimen mentioned above was obtained alive with 

 two others in the neighbourhood of the Nieuveld Mountains, a consider- 

 able distance in the interior of the country, which shows, as Mr. 

 Steedman observes, that the species is not so strictly confined to the 

 vicinity of the sea-coast, as its name ' Straand-Wolf ' would imply, or 

 as the accounts of travellers would lead us to imagine. 



The Straand-Wolf devours carrion and such dead animal substances, 

 whales for instance, as the sea casts up : but when pressed by hunger 

 its habits seem to resemble those of the other species, for it then com- 

 mits serious depredations on the flocks and herds of the colonists, 

 who hold its incursions in great dread. Mr. Steedman, who states 

 this, says he saw a very fine specimen, which had been shot by a 

 farmer residing in the vicinity of Blauwberg, and was informed that 

 it had destroyed three large calves belonging to the farmer. He adds, 

 that it is said to be a remarkably cunning animal, retiring to a consider- 

 able distance from the scene of its depredations to elude pursuit, and 

 concealing itself during the day-time in the mountains, or in the 

 thick bush, which extends in large patches throughout the sandy 

 district in which ifr is usually found. 



//. rufa, the Brown Hyaena. It is the Crocula brunnea of Gray; 

 II. fueca of Geoffroy; the H. crocuta rufa, of Fischer, and the H. 

 brunnea of Thunberg. This species is a native of South Africa, and 

 has been taken at Natal. There is a living specimen at present in the 

 collection of the Zoological Society in Regent's Park. 



Fotsil Hyatnaa. Fossil Hysenas occur abundantly in the third period 

 of the Tertiary deposits (Pliocene of Lyell), especially in the ossiferous 

 caverns. Dr. Buckland gives the following localities for the remains of 

 Hyicnas in caves or fissures : Kirkdale, Plymouth, Crawley Rocks, near 

 Swansea, Paviland Caves near Swansea, district of Muggendorf, district 

 of the Harz, Fouvent in France, Suudwick in Westphalia, and Kostritz 

 near Leipzig. Those found in the superficial loam or gravel are 

 stated to have occurred at Lawford near Rugby, at Herzberg, and 

 Osterode, Canstadt near Stutgardt, Eichstadt in Bavaria, and the Val- 

 d' Arno near Florence. The fossil species named are H. speleea, Goldf. ; 

 H. tpelcea major, Goldf. ; //. prisca (Hyene Raye"e Fossile), M. De Serres ; 

 H. intermedia, M. De Serres ; H. Perrierii, Brav., Croiz., and Job. ; 

 H. Arvernensis, Brav., Croiz., and Job. ; and H. ilubia, Brav., Croiz., 

 and Job. Of these the only species which has been found in the 

 caves of great Britain is the H. tpelcea. As the discovery of the 

 bones principally of this animal in the caves at Kirkdale were amongst 

 the first to attract attention among the numerous extinct Mammalia 

 which formerly lived in Great Britain, we give an extract from Dr. 

 Buckland's description of that remarkable locality. 



" Both the roof and the floor for many yards from the entrance are 

 composed of regular horizontal strata of limestone, uninterrupted by 

 the slightest appearance of fissure, fracture, or stony rubbish of any 

 kind ; but farther in the roof and sides become irregularly arched, 

 presenting a very rugged and grotesque appearance, being studded 

 with pendent and roundish masses of chert and stalactite ; the bottom 

 of the cavern is visible only near the entrance, and its irregularities, 

 though apparently not great, have been filled up throughout to a 

 nearly level surface by the introduction of a bed of mud or loamy 

 sediment. There is no alternation of mud with any repeated beds of 

 stalactite, but simply a partial deposit of the latter on the floor 

 beneath it ; and it was chiefly in the lower part of the earthy sedi- 

 ment, and in the stalagmitic matter beneath it, that the animal 

 remains were found : there was nowhere any black earth, or admix- 

 ture of animal matter, except an infinity of extremely minute particles 

 of undecomposed bone. In the whole extent of the cave only a very 

 few large bones have been discovered perfect; most of them are 

 broken into small angular fragments and chips, the greater part of 

 which lay separately in the mud, whilst others were wholly or 

 partially invested with stalagmite ; and others again mixed with 

 masses of still smaller fragments, and cemented by stalagmite, so as 

 to form an osseous breccia. In some few places where the mud was 

 shallow and the heaps of teeth and bones considerable, pares of the 

 latter were elevated some inches above the surface of the mud and its 

 stalagmitic crust, and the upper ends of the bones thus projecting, 

 like the legs of pigeons through a pie-crust, into the void space above, 

 have become thinly covered with stalagmitic drippings, whilst their 

 lower extremities have no such incrustation, and have simply the mud 

 adhering to them in which they have been imbedded ; a horizontal 

 crust of stalagmite about an inch thick crosses the middle of these 

 bones, and retains them firmly in the position they occupied at the 

 bottom of the cave. A large flat plate of stalagmite, corresponding 

 in all respects with the above description, and containing three long 

 bones fixed so as to form almost a right angle with the plane of the 

 stalagmite, is in the collection of the Rev. Mr. Smith of Kirby Moor- 

 side. The same gentleman has also, among many other valuable 

 specimens, a fragment of the thigh-bone of an elephant, which is the 

 largest I have seen from this cave. The effect of the loam and the 

 stalagmite in preserving the bones from decomposition, by protecting 

 them from atmospheric air, has been very remarkable ; some that hail 

 lain uncovered in the cave for a long time before the introduction of 

 the loam were in various stages of decomposition, but even in these 

 the further progress of decay appears to have been arrested as soon as 



