HYENAS. 491 



returning ; indeed, unless they scent food, they always make use of paths in their 

 nocturnal rambles, whether made by themselves or by men or game. In a 

 primitive state there is no doubt that they are chiefly dependent upon the lion 

 for their daily food, and it is equally certain that they must be able to go 

 without eating for immense periods. The old hunters declare that their numbers 

 have much increased within their memory in the districts in which there is 

 most hunting, and as so much game goes away and dies unseen of its wounds, 

 which the hyaenas are easily able to find by the blood-track which they leave, to 

 say nothing of the amount of meat that is purposely left for want of a use for it, 

 there is every reason to think that they must find man a better purveyor than the 

 lion, and increase accordingly." 



EXTINCT HYENAS. 



The occurrence of fossil remains of the spotted and striped hyaanas in the 

 cavern and other superficial deposits of Europe has been already mentioned. In 

 the antecedent Pliocene period there were, however, a number of hyaenas belonging 

 to species now extinct ; some of these being nearly allied to the existing forms, 

 while others differed markedly in the number and characters of their teeth. These 

 extinct hyaenas are found over the greater part of Europe from France to Italy, 

 Greece, and Hungary and also in Persia, India, and China. Colvin's hyaena from 

 North India, of which a portion of the lower jaw is figured on p. 482, and the robust 

 hyaena of Italy were nearly allied to the spotted species, while the Pikermi hyaena 

 of Greece differed from all living species in having four premolar teeth in the lower 

 jaw. The Siwalik hyaena of Northern India and the Grecian hyaena were allied to 

 the striped species, but both have an additional molar behind the lower flesh-tooth, 

 while the former has four lower premolars. Again, the long-jawed hyaena from 

 Northern India and a nearly allied species from Greece differ from existing forms 

 in their long jaws and the compressed form of the premolar teeth, of which there 

 were four in the lower jaw. These two species make a marked approach to the 

 civets, but this is still more evident in a smaller extinct hyaena from Europe, 

 referred to a distinct genus under the name of Palhycena. In this there were 

 four premolar and two molar teeth in each jaw, so that the total number of teeth 

 was forty, or the same as in the true civets, and this extinct species was so nearly 

 allied to the extinct civet mentioned on p. 479 as the icti there, that the two families 

 may be regarded as passing one into the other. 



