84 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



formerly used to trek annually to White River in the 

 eastern Transvaal for winter grazing were, nevertheless, 

 firmly of the opinion that they had absolutely traced the 

 deaths of many of their young lambs to the aardwolf . It 

 seems that, having poisoned the bodies of the dead 

 lambs, they found defunct aardwolves lying beside them 

 next morning. Though this evidence was purely circum- 

 stantial, it would perhaps be too much to expect the 

 owners of the stock to believe the animal not guilty under 

 the circumstances. Some say that the aardwolf kills lambs 

 for the sake of the milk found in the stomachs. How- 

 ever this may be, it seems probable that, if he is capable 

 of killing such creatures, he may similarly prey on the 

 young lambs of small antelopes. 



HYENAS 



The hyaenas are large, carnivorous mammals, fur- 

 nished with extremely powerful jaws, strong teeth, and 

 non-retractile claws. The number of cheek teeth on 

 each side of the upper jaw is five, and of the lower four, 

 the corresponding numbers in the cat group being three 

 or four, and three, respectively. The skull has a promi- 

 nent crest of bone along the middle of the back part of 

 its upper surface, to which, in life, are attached the 

 powerful muscles of the jaw. The tail is relatively 

 short, and the front legs are longer than the hind ones, 

 which gives the animals a very ungainly and clumsy 

 appearance. 



THE STRIPED HY^NA. General colour, dirty grey, 

 marked with narrow transverse dark stripes on body and 

 limbs. A mane of upright hair is present on the neck 

 and along the back. In size this is the smallest of the 

 three species. It is common to Asia and Africa, and 

 in the latter continent ranges along the east coast as far 



