152 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



The den of a spotted hyaena that was kept in the 

 Tower about twenty years ago, required some repair. 

 The carpenter nailed a thick oaken plank upon the 

 floor, about seven feet long, putting at least a dozen 

 nails into it, each longer than his middle finger. At 

 one end of this piece of wood there was a small projec- 

 tion, and not having a proper chisel with him by which 

 he might remove it, the man returned to his shop to 

 fetch one. While he was absent some persons came 

 to see the animals, and the hyaena was let down by the 

 keeper into the part of the den in which the carpenter 

 had been at work. Directly the beast saw the project- 

 ing piece of wood he seized it with his teeth, tore the 

 plank up, and drew out every nail with the utmost 

 ease ; which action will give a good idea of the muscu- 

 lar strength of this creature. 



It is impossible to say why there should be such con- 

 flicting accounts of the hyaena given by those whose 

 veracity is undoubted. No one dreads them on the 

 Gold Coast, but they seem to be the terror of all the 

 inhabitants at and to the north of the Cape, also in 

 Abyssinia, where Bruce called them ' the plagues of 

 their lives ;' and we can scarcely forbear a smile when 

 we read that one of them stood by his bed-side, with a 

 purloined bunch of candles in his mouth, having found 

 his way to him even through the streets of Gondar. 



THE CAT TRIBE. LIONS. 



I MUST be allowed to give a somewhat more lengthened 

 description than I have bestowed on other animals to 

 the Felidae, or Cat tribe, because the same characters 



