166 MAMMALIA—HYENA.'. 
THE STRIPED HYANA. 
So striking, and even so singular, are the characteristics of the hyena, 
that it is hardly possible to be deceived by them. It is, perhaps, the only 
quadruped which has but four toes to either the fore or hind feet: like the 
badger, it has an aperture under the tail, which does not penetrate into the 
interior parts of the body; its ears are long, straight,.and nearly bare; its 
head is more square and shorter than that of the wolf; its legs, the hind 
ones especially, are longer; its eyes are placed like those of the dog; the 
hair and mane of a brownish gray, with transverse dark brown or blackish 
bands on the body, which stripes become oblique on the flanks and the legs. 
The coat is of two sorts; fur or wool, in small quantity, and long, stiff, and 
silky hair. Its height varies from nineteen to twenty-five inches, and its 
usual length, from the muzzle to the tail, is three feet three inches. 
The striped hyena is a native of Barbary, Egypt, Abyssinia, , Nubia, 
Syria, Persia, and the East Indies. It generally resides in the caverns of 
mountains, in the clefts of rocks, or in dens, which it has formed for itself 
under the earth. It lives by depredation, like the wolf; but it is a stronger 
animal, and seemingly more daring. It sometimes attacks man, carries off 
cattle, follows the flocks, breaks open the sheepcotes by night, and ravages 
with a ferocity insatiable. By ‘night also its eyes shine; and it is main 
tained that it sees better than in the day. If we may credit all the natural- 
ists who have treated of this animal, its ery is very peculiar, beginning 
with something like the moaning of a human being, and ending in a sound 
which resembles the sobs or reachings of a man in a violent fit of vomiting ; 
1 Hyena vulgaris. The genus Hyena has six upper and six lower incisors; two 
upper and two lower canines ; ten upper and eight lower molars. Feet tetradactyle; nails 
not retractile ; legs long; eves projectine; ears large; a glandular pouch at the anus. 
