THE HYAENA 485 



fancy one of his legs was broken ; but after a time this halting 

 disappears, and he proceeds on his course very swiftly. 



" One night, in Maitsha," says Bruce, " being very intent 

 on observation, I heard something pass behind me towards the 

 bed, but upon looking round could perceive nothing. Having 

 finished what I was then about, I went out of my tent, intending 

 directly to return, which I immediately did, when I perceived 

 large blue eyes glaring at me in the dark. I called upon my 

 servant for a light, and there was a hysena standing nigh the 

 head of the bed, with two or three large bunches of candles in 

 his mouth. To have fired at him, I was in danger of breaking 

 my quadrant or other furniture; and he seemed, by keeping the 

 candles steadily in his mouth, to wish for no other prey at that 

 time. As his mouth was full, and he had no claws to tear with, 

 I was not afraid of him, but with a pike struck him as near the 

 heart as I could judge. It was not till then he showed any 

 sign of fierceness, but upon feeling his wound he let drop the 

 candles and endeavoured to run up the shaft of the spear to 

 arrive at me, so that in self-defence I was obliged to draw a 

 pistol from my girdle and shoot him, and nearly at the same 

 time my servant cleft his skull with a battle-axe." 



The brown hyaena, which is found in South Africa, from the 

 Cape to Mozambique and Senegambia, and has a more shaggy 

 fur than the preceding species, has very different habits. He is 

 particularly fond of the crustacese which the ebbing flood leaves 

 behind upon the beach, or which the storm casts ashore in 

 great quantities, and exclusively inhabits the coasts, where he 

 is known under the name of the sea-shore wolf. His traces are 

 everywhere to be met with on the strand, and night after night 

 he prowls along the margin of the water, carefully examining 

 the refuse of the retreating ocean. 



