142 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



body, excepting the under part of the belly and of the breast, the 

 inner surface of the limbs, and the head ; the extremity of the 

 muzzle is black; the tail is brown, without spots. 



The peculiar powers of the hyaena, arising out of the extraordi- 

 nary strength of his jaws and teeth, admirably fit him for the pur- 

 poses which he serves in the economy of nature. An inhabitant 

 of warm countries, he principally derives his subsistence, in com- 

 mon with the jackal and the vulture, from those animal remains, 

 which, if uncons^umed, would produce the most serious incon- 

 venience. All the narratives of residents in, or travellers through, 

 Southern Africa, agree in their accounts of these facts. Mr. 

 Pringle, in the notes to his " Ephemerides," says, "There are 

 several species of the vulture in South Africa, but the most com- 

 mon is the large light-colored vultur percnoptertis, one of the 

 sacred birds of the ancient Egyptians. These fowls divide with 

 the hyaenas the office of carrion-scavengers ; and the promptitude 

 with which they discover and devour every dead carcase is truly 

 surprising. They also instinctively follow any band of hunters, 

 or party of men travelling, especially in solitary places, wheeling 

 in circles high in the air, ready to pounce down upon any game 

 that may be shot and not instantly secured, or the carcase of any 

 ox or other animal that may perish on the road. I have seen a 

 large ox so dexterously handled by a flock of these voracious 

 fowls, that in the course of three or four hours not a morsel, ex- 

 cept the bones and the skin, (which they had contrived to disin- 

 carnate almost entire,) remained for the hysnas. In a field of 

 battle in South Africa, no one ever buries the dead : the birds and 

 beasts of prey relieve the living of that trouble. Even the bones, 

 except a few of the less manage ible parts, find a sepulchre in the 

 voracious maw of the hyaena." Mr. Burchell, speaking of the 

 office of vultures in hot regions, says, "Vultures have been 

 ordained evidently to perform very necessary and useful duties 

 on the globe ; as, indeed, has every other animated being, how- 

 ever purblind we may be in our views of their utility ; and we 

 might almost venture to declare that those duties are the final 

 cause of their existence. To those who have had an opportunity 



