i 4 o FLESH-EATERS OF THE LAND 



the Hyaena finds itself in a perfect paradise of easily 

 acquired food, which draws still more of its tribe to the 

 region. 



AARD WOLF (Proteles cristatus). 

 Plate XIV. Fig. 2. 



The Aard Wolf of South Africa is sometimes classed with 

 the hyaenas and sometimes with the civets. It really 

 belongs to neither, and is rightly placed in an intermediate 

 group, called the Protelidce. It is by no means a large 

 animal, its extreme length being about three feet six inches. 

 Its colour is yellowish gray, banded with dark stripes. The 

 Aard Wolf, i.e., the Earth Wolf, is a mighty burrower and 

 sometimes excavates a common habitation, almost if not 

 quite unique in zoology. Several of the animals will dig as 

 many burrows, but they will terminate in a common 

 chamber, though each appropriates to its own use the tunnel 

 which it has dug. Carrion and white ants form the chief 

 food of this hyaena-like animal. 



FAMILY VIVERRID/E (CIVETS AND 

 ICHNEUMONS). 



This Old World family of animals includes the Civet, 

 Ichneumon, Mongoose, Genet, Paradoxure, and several 

 others. The family gains its name from the civet, or pale 

 yellow fatty substance which is secreted in two little pouches 

 just under the tail of the true Civet. Most of the animals 

 are sharp-muzzled, long in the body and short in the leg. 

 They have five toes on each foot, and while some of them 

 have the walk of the true cats, others are but semi-planti- 

 grade; the iclaws, too, are only imperfectly retractile. The 

 jaws are not so strong as in the cat tribe, but there are ten 

 more teeth, six extra premolars and four additional molars, 

 making a total of forty as compared to the thirty of the 

 cat. The shape of the teeth likewise differs considerably ; 

 the canines are less pronounced, and the grinders, losing 

 their shear-like action, have their surfaces raised in little 

 lumps or cusps. 



