I 48 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



HYAENAS. 



THERE cannot be a much more uninteresting animal 

 than the hard-hided, knock-kneed Hyaena, which is pre- 

 eminently African, although he is found in the East ; 

 having, according to the opinion of some naturalists, 

 migrated thither in the wake of caravans. He has a 

 ferocious, ill-natured look, yet the first impression made 

 by his appearance can only be expressed by the word 

 4 sneaking.' He is of a tawny colour, more or less dusky 

 till it approaches black, and is generally spotted or 

 striped. He has a mane continued all along the spine ; 

 his ears are long and erect ; he is digitigrade ; his claws 

 are strong and not retractile ; he possesses a gland 

 which sends forth a disagreeable odour ; and his eyes 

 have a pupil which is contracted at the top and round 

 at the bottom, which gives them a singular expression. 

 The great peculiarity of form in the hyaena is the 

 disproportionate smallness about his hind quarters ; be- 

 sides which the vertebrae of his neck very often become 

 stiffened, in consequence of the strain put upon them by 

 the powerful muscles of that part and of the jaws. So 

 firm is the hold which they take, that nothing will make 

 them leave what they have once seized. They devour 

 bones as well as muscles, rejecting only hoofs, horns, 

 and skull ; and this power must have existed in former 

 ages, for in the caves which they inhabited, and into 

 which they dragged their prey, their fossil remains are 

 found with those of gigantic mastodons, etc., on which 

 their teeth had made impression. This stiffness of the 

 neck has caused many to imagine that it was composed 

 of one joint only, and led the Arabs to make hyaenas 

 the symbols of obstinacy. 



