178 THE STORY OF THE HYENA. 



of three or four miles, if the ground is broken by ravines. It is a cowardly 

 animal, and shows but little fight when brought to bay. The young are very 

 tamable, and show great signs of attachment to their owner, in spite of all 

 that has been written about the untamable ferocity of the hyena. 



The striped hyena's food is mainly carrion or carcasses killed by other ani- 

 mals; and in inhabited districts the animal is much dreaded on account of its 

 grave-robbing propensities. Portions of such carcasses as it finds are eaten on 

 the spot, while other parts are dragged off to its den, the situation of which 

 is generally indicated by the fragments of bones around the entrance. These 

 hyenas will also feast on skeletons that have been picked down to the bone by 

 jackals and vultures; the bone-cracking power of the hyena's jaws rendering 

 such relics acceptable, if not favorite, food. 



The striped hyena — probably on account of its "body-snatching" propen- 

 sities — is cordially detested by the natives of all the countries it inhabits. 

 When a hyena is killed, the body is treated in many parts of India with every 

 mark of indignity, and finally burnt. On one occasion in the Punjab, I came 

 across a party of natives cruelly ill-treating a nearly full-grown hyena, which 

 had been rendered helpless by its jaws being muzzled and its feet broken. I 

 soon ended the sufferings of the poor brute by a bullet. 



Although, owing to their nocturnal habits, hyenas are seldom seen, yet 

 in some parts of India, from the multitude of their tracks, they must be very 

 common. 



The African spotted hyena is much larger and more powerful than the 

 striped species. It inhabits the greater part of Africa at the present day. 

 Formerly the geographical range of this hyena was far more extensive than 

 it is at present, as is proved by the vast quantities of its remains found in the 

 caves of various parts of Europe, from Gibraltar in the south to Yorkshire in 

 the north. It was formerly considered, indeed, that the so-called "cave- 

 hyena" indicated a distinct species from the living one; but zoologists are 

 now generally in accord in regarding the two as specifically identical, al- 

 though the fossil European hyenas were generally of larger dimensions than 

 the existing African form. 



The cowardly and carrion-eating hyena is not a big game animal and our 

 ex-President did not care to spend much time in hunting it. But Kermit put up 

 one in a jungle, while the safari was camping on Kapiti Plains, and after an 

 exciting chase over the stony steppe for several miles finally succeeded in bag- 

 ging the fleeing beast. 



