HYAENA 25 



THE SPOTTED HYAENA 

 (Page 449) 



Several new forms of the spotted hyaena here regarded as races 

 have been described since the publication of the original volume, 

 in which a previously named race was omitted ; Prof. Cabrera has 

 also pointed out, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1911, p. 94, that the typical race 

 of the species is probably from Senegambia. The omitted race is 

 Hyaena^ crocuta leontiewi, from Abyssinia, described in 1905 by Dr. 

 Satunin in the Zoologischer Anzeiger, vol. xxix. p. 556. In 1908 Prof. 

 Lonnberg described, on pp. 16 and 17 of the section on Mammals in 

 " Sjostedt's Kilimandjaro-Meru Expedition," two East African hyaenas, 

 namely, H. c. kibonotensis from the Kibonoto plains and H. c. panga- 

 nensis from the Pangani valley. In the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society for 1911, pp. 97-99, Prof. Cabrera added three other local forms, 

 viz. : H. c. rufopicta from the Boran country, H. c. thomasi from the 

 Ankoli district of Uganda, and H. c. nyasae from southern Nyasaland. 

 Later on the same naturalist (Bol. R. Soc. Espatt. Hist. Nat., 1911, 

 p. 200) named a fourth race, H. c. nzoyae t from the Guasengishu plateau 

 of British East Africa. Of these races it must suffice to mention that 

 rufopicta is a pale reddish and red-spotted hyaena, very different in 

 appearance from the grey ones of Abyssinia and Uganda ; thomasi is 

 a pale grey, black-spotted animal ; nyasae is pale yellowish in general 

 colour, with large dark spots and pale feet ; while nzoyae, is allied to 

 thomasi, but is of a dull yellowish colour without any trace of grey. 

 All these four races, together with Satunin's leontiwei (described from 

 the skull alone), and Matschie's wtssmant, are characterised by the 

 relatively narrow palate of the skull, whereas in capensis the same 

 region is much broader. 



A spotted hy;ena, brought home by Mr. David Davies from British 

 East Africa, probably referable to the Kilimanjaro Hyaena crocuta 

 germinans, is characterised by the number, large size, and blackness 

 of the spots, the ground-colour being orange. In these respects it 

 presents a marked contrast to a specimen from Zomba, Nyasaland, in 

 which the spots are comparatively few, small in size, and pale in 

 colour, the ground-colour of the coat being tawny-yellow. 



1 The authors cited separate the spotted hyarna genericnlly from the striped species as 

 Crocuta or Crotota. 



