SPOTTED JIY.EXAS IX THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 95 



these countries at least must be discarded. The supposed dis- 

 tribution being restricted in this manner to Central Africa and 

 Senegambia, it becomes clear that, as Centi-al Africa was totally 

 unknown to Europeans in Pennant's time, the only conclusion at 

 which we can arrive from Lydekker's statement is that which I 

 have adopted. Crocntta crocuta may therefore be selected as the 

 name for the Senegambian Spotted Hyajna, at least until a 

 stronger argument can prove that this view is not the right one. 



As I have said above, Ouvier, in his ' Ossements Fossiles,' 

 distinguished two different forms of Spotted Hytenas, a grey 

 one and a reddish one. In the second edition of the same work, 

 he states that his reddish Hytena is frequently found about 

 the Cape, but the source of this knowledge is not given. The 

 first exact description of the Cape Hysena is by Desmarest*, who 

 named it ffycena cajyensis. As to H. rvfa, of the same author, 

 based on Cuvier's i-eddish Hysena, its exact locality being unknown, 

 it is best to consider it as a synonym of true crocuta. Boitard t 

 gives the three names to one and the same animal, and describes 

 a yellowish Hyaena from the Cape as H. citvieri, this name 

 becoming thus a synonym of Desmarest's capensis. 



Since the publication of all these old names, no other splitting 

 of the group has been attempted till 1900, when MatschieJ de- 

 scribed five so-called new species : Crocuta wissmanni, from German 

 "West Africa ; C. gariejjensis, from the Orange River ; C ger- 

 minans, from Gei'man East Africa ; and (7. thierryi and 

 C. togoensis, from Togo. In a subsequent paper §, the same 

 zoologist named the form from Kamerun C. noltei, Satunin || has 

 given the name leontiewi to the Abyssinian Spotted Hyaena,, a,nd 

 Lonnberg ^ has described two other forms from East Africa, 

 C. kibonotevisis, from Kibonoto plains, and C. j^anganensis, from 

 the Pangani River. 



It is impossible to decide now, without the comparative study 

 of large series of specimens, and especially of skidls, whether all 

 these forms are true different species, or whether they are local 

 races of one or of several species. From the material in the Bi-itish 

 Museum, which I have been able to examine through the kindness 

 of Mr. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., it appears that two different types 

 of skulls may be distinguished : — a broad one, in which the width 

 of the palate across the upper carnassials is practically equal to or. 

 a little greater than the length of the lower tooth-series exclusive 

 of incisors ; and a narrow one, in which the width of the palate is 

 equal to or a little less than the length of the upper tooth-series. 

 This latter always being 4-15 mm. shorter than the lower tooth- 

 row, it is clear that the difference between the two types can be 



* ' Mammaloo;ie,' i. (1820) p. 216. 

 t Le Jardin des Plaiites, 1845, p. 232. 

 X SB. Gesellsch. Nat. Fr. Berl. 1900, pp. 18-58. 

 § L. c. 1900, p. 211. 



i| ' Zoologischcr An/.ei.srer,' xxix. (1905) p. 556. 

 % Sjosted't, Kilimanj. Mcru Expcd. 1908, pp. IB-lS,. plf^. 5 & 7. 



