HYAENA SPEL^EA. 147 



been attempted to be invalidated by subsequent statements,* 

 founded, however, on imperfect observation of the habits 

 of living Hyeenas, which statements later and better testi- 

 mony has disproved .-J- The best informed naturalists fully 

 concur in the truth of the picture which Dr. Buckland has 

 given of the habits of the recent species. 



" The strength of the Hyaena's jaw is such that, in at- 

 tacking a dog, he begins by biting off his leg at a single 

 snap. The capacity of his teeth for such an operation is 

 sufficiently obvious from simple inspection ; and consistent 

 with this strength of teeth and jaw is the state of the 

 muscles of his neck, being so full and strong that, in early 

 times, this animal was fabled to have but one cervical 

 vertebra. They live by day in dens, and seek their prey 

 by night, having large prominent eyes, adapted, like those 

 of the rat and mouse, for seeing in the dark. To animals 

 of such a class, our cave at Kirkdale would afford a most 

 convenient habitation, and the circumstances we find deve- 

 loped in it are entirely consistent with the habits above 

 enumerated." 



Cuvier emphatically sanctions this happy application of 

 the natural history of the Hyaena to elucidate the pheno- 

 mena of the Kirkdale cavern, which, he says, might seem 



* Wernerian Transactions, vol. i. p. 385. 



f- That of Colonel Sykes, quoted in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. 

 xii. p. 315. M. de Blainville, in the course of his argument against the conclu- 

 sions of Dr. Buckland, adopted by Cuvier, says, in reference to the inference de- 

 duced by Dr. Buckland from the minute fragments of the enamel of teeth, which 

 he detected unaltered in the Coprolites of the Kirkdale cavern : " But I have yet 

 to learn that any animal feeds upon teeth, and can even digest them ; so that this 

 peculiarity might afford an additional objection against the opinion of M. Buck- 

 land, that the bones of Mammifers, found in great quantity in the cave of Kirk- 

 dale, with those of Hyaenas, had been brought there by them, and not at all by 

 inundations." " Or, je ne connois encore aucune animal qui se nourrisse de 

 dents et puisse meme les digerer ; en sorte que cette particularite pourrait etre 

 une objection de plus a exposer contre Popinion de M. Buckland, que les os de 

 Mammiferes trouves en grande quantite dans la caverne de Kirkdale, avec ceux 



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