480 



CARNIVORES. 



may also be some dark bars on the limbs. The long tail is thicjkly haired. The 

 long hair on the back forms a kind of crest (giving origin to the second scientific 

 name of the aard-wolf), which can be erected at the will of the animal. The claws, 

 like those of the hyaenas, are not capable of retraction, and are rather long, with 

 blunted extremities. Whereas, however, the hysenas have but four toes on both 

 the front and hind-feet, the aard-wolf has five toes on the front, and four on the 

 hind-feet. But the most peculiar feature is to be found in the almost rudimental 

 condition of the teeth, which may be either thirty or thirty-two in number, their 

 small size being most apparent in those of the cheek series, which are widely 



THE AARD-WOLF () nat. size). 



separated from one another, and are quite unlike the strongly-developed teeth 

 of the hysenas. The skull, while agreeing in many respects with that of the 

 hyaenas, has also certain points of resemblance with that of the mungooses. The 

 aard-wolf may, in short, be regarded as an animal which, in all probability, 

 originated from the same ancestral civet-like creatures from which the hyaenas were 

 derived, but which has undergone a kind of retrograde development to suit the 

 needs of a particular mode of life. It was long thought to be confined to South 

 Africa, but it has been subsequently found to range on the West Coast as far north 

 as Angola, and quite recently a single skin has been obtained from SomaKland, so 

 that it probably extends right across the Continent. 



