1 68 BRITISH MAMMALS 



imitated in appearance by the female parts, though the resem- 

 blance is only superficial. It thus seems to the casual observer 

 not acquainted with this hyaena's anatomy that every specimen 

 killed is a male. 



The present range of the spotted hyaena (which generally 

 attains to a larger size than either the brown or the striped 

 forms) is limited to Africa south of the Sahara Desert. In 

 Eastern and Southern Africa it co-exists respectively with the 

 striped and the brown hyaena. In Somaliland it grows to a great 

 size, and is almost as bold and dangerous as the lion. Its 

 former range in geological history was far more extensive. On 

 the east it reached as far as Southern India, and on the north 

 to Yorkshire. Its remains dating back to the Pleistocene and 

 Pliocene periods have been found in all the countries of Southern, 

 Central, and Western Europe as far north as Saxony, Yorkshire, 

 and Wales. The spotted hyaena first appears in East Anglia 

 at the close of the Pliocene period. In the Pleistocene it 

 swarmed over England and parts of Wales almost down to the 

 arrival of Neolithic man. Many of these hyaenas must have 

 dwelt in the caves, in which their remains are found in incredible 

 quantities. They almost seem to have shared these domains on 

 terms of alliance with the cave bear and the great cave lion. 

 At one time this cave-dwelling hyaena was distinguished specific- 

 ally as Hy<ena spel<ea, just as the cave lion was called Felis 

 speltea ; but the cave hyaena was nothing but a very large form 

 of spotted hyaena which inhabited England, France, and other 

 parts of Europe, just as the Felis sfeltea is nothing more than 

 a very big lion. The range of the spotted hyaena in England 

 (like that of so many animals now of African habitat) does not 

 seem to have extended beyond Yorkshire. No remains of the 

 hyaena have been obtained in Scotland or Ireland. 



FAMILY: MACHAIRODONTID&. THE SABRE-TOOTHED CATS 



Here we have the destructive carnivorous mammal brought to 



its most amazing development, a development distancing even 



that of the lion and tiger, and only exceeded in potency by man 



