THE LYCAON. 265 



comparing them that they were congeners, and 

 though all differed in their markings and distribu- 

 tion of colours, that they can hardly be distin- 

 guished as species; yet, when referring to the 

 absolute canine characters ascertained by Zoologists, 

 characters which the skins cannot afford, and in the 

 living specimens were not accessible, we are some- 

 what surprised that their attitudes, movements, 

 voice, and aspect, while alive, should be so singu- 

 larly conformable with those of hyaenas, and unlike 

 the same in any species of true canines. It was 

 from these that both Mr. Burchel, who kept the 

 animal thirteen months in a stable-yard, and our- 

 selves who repeatedly visited it, judged the affinity 

 was more with the former than the latter ; and al- 

 though there be a rudiment of a fifth toe on the 



o 



anterior carpus, the presence of two large and foetid 

 glands beneath the tail, and the doubtful question 

 of the modus copulandi, still approximates them 

 more to hyaena than M. Riippel seems disposed to 

 admit. 



