u8 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP, vi 



and then dragging out their entrails through the 

 wound thus made. I once started on a journey 

 down the northern bank of the central Zambesi in 

 1877, taking with me four fine strong donkeys. 

 Three of these donkeys were killed near the mouth 

 of the Kafukwe river by hyaenas, and the fourth 

 badly lacerated. These donkeys were so com- 

 pletely devoured by what, judging from the noise 

 they made, must have been a regular pack of 

 hyaenas, that it was impossible to tell how they had 

 been killed. In 1882, when travelling through the 

 eastern part of Mashunaland beyond the Hanyani 

 river, I had a very fine large stallion donkey killed 

 one night close to my camp by a single hyaena. 

 We heard the poor creature give a heart-rending 

 screaming cry when it was first seized, and ran to 

 its assistance at once, but when we got to it, it was 

 already dead. Its powerful, strong-jawed assailant 

 had seized it between the hind -legs, torn a great 

 hole in its abdomen, and dragged out half its 

 entrails in an incredibly short space of time. 



I have never measured or weighed any of the 

 hyaenas I have shot, but Mr. Vaughan Kirby 

 speaks of a very large one as having stood three 

 feet high at the shoulder, and I believe that such an 

 animal must have weighed more than 200 pounds. 



Very little is known of the life -history of the 

 spotted hyaena. Bushmen have told me that the 

 females give birth only to two whelps at a time. 

 These are usually born in one of the large holes 

 excavated by the African ant-eaters (Aardvarks). 

 Although I have seen a great number of hyaenas on 

 various moonlight nights, I have never seen a very 

 young or even a half-grown one accompanying its 

 mother, and I cannot help thinking, therefore, that 

 young spotted hyaenas remain in the, burrows where 

 they are born, and are there fed by their parents 

 until they are at least eight or nine months old. 



