450 HYAENAS 



spending tooth of a lion or a leopard, with no projecting heel from 

 the hind end. Ugly and big-headed in appearance, and clumsy in 

 build, with low, sloping hind-quarters, the spotted hyaena takes its name 

 from the widely separated chocolate-brown solid spots over the ochery 

 yellow coat. On the upper parts of the limbs the spots become 

 smaller, while they disappear from the lower portions, which are 

 uniformly dark brown. The ears, which are very sparsely haired, 

 are rather large and rounded ; and the tail is short. A male will 

 measure about 5 feet 9 inches in total length, with a standing height 

 of about 3 I inches. 



The range of the spotted hyaena extended in modern times from 

 Egypt to Cape Colony, and westwards to Senegambia, the Congo, and 

 the hinterland of the Cameroons and Togo districts. During the 

 Pleistocene, or latest geological epoch, the species also ranged over 

 Algeria, and a large part of Europe, occurring in the British Isles as 

 far north as York and also in Ireland ; this extinct race being known 

 as Hycena crocuta spelcsa. The living representatives of the species 

 present certain local variations in colouring and pattern, as well as in 

 the length of the tail (exclusive of the terminal brush of hair), upon 

 which Dr. P. Matschie, in the Sitzungs-Berichte Ges. Naturfor. Berlin for 

 1900, pp. 19 and 211, has founded a number of geographical races. 



Of these, the typical race is believed to extend from Egypt through 

 Central Africa to the Transvaal in the south, and Senegambia in the 

 west. In Cape Colony this race is replaced by H. c. capensis ; while 

 the representative of the species inhabiting the Orange river district 

 has been separated as H. c. gariepensis. All these appear to be 

 relatively short -tailed races ; but in H. c. noltei of the Cameroons, 

 H. c. weissmanni of the Epukiro district of German West Africa, and 

 H. c. tJiierryi of northern and H. c. togoensis of western Togo, the tail 

 is proportionately longer. Of these, noltei is characterised by the tail 

 being shorter than in the others and the spots on the hind region 

 of the body for the most part greatly elongated, while even the 

 normally round spots tend to become streaks. It will, however, be 

 unnecessary to point out all the characteristics of this and the other 

 races, and it will suffice to add that the East African representative 

 of the species, inhabiting the Kilimanjaro district and elsewhere, has 

 been separated as H. c. germinans. 



For the following (condensed) account of the spotted hyaena in 

 south-eastern Africa the writer is once more indebted to Mr. Vaughan 

 Kirby :- 



" These hyaenas are distributed throughout the whole of the south- 



