THE SPOTTED HYJENA. 



sures from the nose to the tail four feet seven inches, 

 and including the tail five feet eight inches; the 

 head alone is eleven and a half inches. As these 

 animals stand in height at the shoulder ahout half 

 their total length, we may estimate the stature at 

 above thirty inches : dimensions nearly equal to the 

 largest hyasnas of Abyssinia. The byname of Capensis 

 given to this species by Desmarets, after Erxleben 

 had already promulgated that of Crocuta, appears 

 to be the more improper, because the species ex- 

 tends to Guinea, and on the east coast to the north- 

 ward of Zofala. In form this species greatly resembles 

 the striped hysena, but the head is broader and flat- 

 ter, the muzzle fuller, and the eyes still nearer the 

 nose ; the mane is not long or very remarkable, and 

 the general colour is a dirty ochry-grey, marked, 

 with small round spots of a brown colour, and not 

 very abundant ; the muzzle, up to the eyes, and the 

 lower limbs are sooty ; the interior face of the limbs 

 dirty white ; and the tail and terminal tuft are with- 

 out spots, and dark. 



This species does not burrow, but readily occupies 

 earths made by other animals, or retreats into ca- 

 verns or other places for shelter : it moves little by 

 day, but quests in the darkest nights, and then will 

 enter farms, and even the streets of towns, to satiate 

 its hunger. 



In Baron Cuvier's Reckerches sur les Ossemens 

 Fossiles d'Hyaenes, mention is made of a rufous 

 hygena (H. rufa)^ but the notice contains only the 

 remark that it is spotted like the Crocuta; instead 



