482 CARNIVORES. 
Europe, and ranged as far east as China. At no period, however, was the group 
represented in the Western Hemisphere. 
The existing species of hyenas are three in number, all of them being now 
generally included in the single genus Hyena ; this genus forming the sole repre- 
sentative of a distinct family. With the exception of the aard-wolf, the nearest 
relatives of the hyenas are the civets; but at the present day the two families 
are markedly distinct, although, as mentioned on p. 479, extinct forms blend the 
two so closely together that it is almost impossible to say where civets end and 
hyzenas begin. Hyznas are massively-built animals, with relatively long legs,— 
especially the front pair,—deep bodies, short and broad heads, and rather short 
tails; their whole appearance being ungainly in the extreme. Their fur is coarse 
and shaggy, and marked, 
more or less distinctly, 
either with irregular 
vertical stripes or large 
blackish spots. Their feet 
have but four toes, on both 
the front and hind-limbs, 
and are furnished with 
stout claws, which are 
permanently — protruded, 
like those of dogs. 
Such are some of their 
chief external character- 
istics; but, in order to 
understand their full 
differences from the civet 
tribe, it is necessary to 
say something with regard 
to their teeth. Existing 
hyenas have a total of 
UPPER AND OUTER VIEWS OF THE HINDER PART OF THE RIGHT HALF OF 
THE LOWER JAW OF AN EXTINCT HYANA. 
The tooth on the left side of the figure is the flesh-tooth. (From the ; ee 
Pale«ontologica Indica.) 354 teeth, of which 2 are 
3 
incisors, } canines, # pre- 
molars, and + molars on either side of the jaws. Thus there is but one tooth, 
which is of small size, behind the flesh-tooth in the upper jaw, while in the lower 
jaw, as shown in the accompanying figure, the flesh-tooth forms the last of the 
series. Here, therefore, we have an important difference from the civets,—with the 
single exception of the fossa (p. 449), which is otherwise well distinguished,—most 
of these having two molar teeth behind the upper flesh-tooth, and the whole of them 
having one molar behind the lower flesh-tooth. This, however, is not all, for, 
whereas the civet family (always excepting the fossa) have only two lobes to the 
blade of the upper flesh-tooth (see Fig. on p. 449), in the hyenas the same tooth (of 
which a figure is given on p. 353) has a three-lobed blade like that of the cats. Then, 
again, the lower flesh-tooth, as shown on the left side of the accompanying figure, 
is also quite unlike that of a civet, and closely resembles that of a cat; the only 
well-marked difference being the presence of a larger or smaller heel at the hinder 
