210 THE SPOTTED HY^NA. 



full, and it terminates at the loins, the remaining part consisting 

 chiefly of scattered hairs j its head is much larger and natter, 

 and its tail is brown, without spots j the ears are large, flat, and 

 rounded j the muzzle is black ; the general colour of the hide 

 is dusky yellow, approaching to a blackish brown on the belly 

 and limbs, with spots also of a blackish brown, more or less 

 deep over the whole of the body, except the undermost part of 

 the belly and of the breast, the inside of the limbs, and the 

 head. 



The vigilance of this animal in seeking for the carrion, or 

 offal, which, if left unconsumed, would produce malaria and 

 other serious inconveniences, in those warm countries which 

 it inhabits, has often been noticed and appreciated by travellers. 

 Mr. Pringle says, tf In a field of battle in South Africa, no one 

 ever buries the dead j the birds and beasts of prey relieve the 

 living of that trouble : even the bones, except a few of the less 

 manageable parts, find a sepulchre in the voracious maw of the 

 hyaena." * No sooner has the corpse began to corrupt, than 

 the keen-scented hyseria comes to bury it in his stomach. 

 Nature, in fact, has appointed him her undertaker in those 

 climates. But when he has been cheated of his natural perqui- 

 site by the corpse being interred in a more ceremonious manner, 

 he visits the grave on the first opportunity j and carrying those 

 serviceable implements, his strong claws, along with him, he 

 soon acts the part of the body-snatcher j arid if ever a hyaena 

 does laugh f it is then, when he has baffled the intentions of 

 mankind. He would look with a jealous eye upon the establish- 

 ment of a cemetery company in those quarters. 



Major Denhani tells us, that a lion having attacked a camel 

 that lay about a hundred yards from the tents, and eaten 

 part of it, the hyaenas visited the remainder in the night, 



* Pringle's Ephemerides (1828), p. 187. Note. 



f Old writers describe the hyaena as a laughing animal. To " laugh like a 

 hyaena" was a common proverb, as appears from the Cobbler's Prophecy 

 (1594), Webster's Duchess of Malfy (1623), and Shakespeare's As You Like 

 It, Act IV. Sc. 1. 



