60 ME. G. BUSK ON THE EXISTING SPECIES OF UYJETSA. 



Hyaena sive congener illi Crocuta, Ludolf. (Hist. JEthiop. 1. i. c. 10). 

 The Spotted Hyena, Pennant. 

 The Tiger Wolf of the Cape. 



4. H. MACULATA, Odmann (Vetensk. Acad. Handl. xi. 1, 1820, p. 65). 

 The j&rst two of these species are distinguislied by certain well- 

 marked dental characters, and have on that account and from 

 other peculiarities (according to Kaup, the possession of the anal 

 sacculus) been placed by some zoologists in a distinct genus or 

 subgenus, for which the late Dr. Palconer had proposed to em- 

 ploy the term Euhycena ; and, in like manner the last species or 

 last two species, constitute the subgenus, or genus, as some re- 

 gard it, of Crocuta, first so named by Kaup. And to this group 

 belongs the commonest form of fossil or Cave Hyena, S. spelcea. 

 The remarks here offered are intended, in the first place, to 

 point out the distinction that may be drawn from the cranial and 

 dental characters alone, between H. striata and H. hrunnea ; and 

 secondly, to inquire what evidence is afforded by those characters, 

 in favour of or against the supposition that there is more than 

 one distinct form of " Spotted Hyena." 



It might be thought that there is little reason or use in enter- 

 ing into a critical examination of such a limited range of parts, 

 concerning the distinctive characters of two such well-marked 

 and undoubted species as H. striata and S. hrunnea. For the 

 mere purpose of distinguishiag these forms zoologically, there 

 are, it is quite true, abundant materials in other striking and 

 obvious characters ; but when we come to the distinction of 

 species by the bones alone, and more especially to that of the 

 fossil species, and their relationship to existing forms, it becomes 

 a question of the utmost interest to ascertain as precisely as pos- 

 sible the characters derived from the more imperishable and most 

 frequently met with parts of the frame, amongst which the cra- 

 nium and teeth are perhaps the most important. 



"With reference to this, and to show how much the importance 

 of such an inquiry has been felt by palaeontologists, I will quote 

 some remarks which I find in the notes of the late Dr. Falconer 

 on the subject of the fossil Hyena from the bone breccia of 

 Gibraltar, to the study of which he had devoted a great amount 

 of labour. He says, " It has been long known to palaeontologists 

 that remains of fossil Hyenas specifically distinct from S. spelcea 

 abound in the ossiferous caves of the South of France. Latterly 

 they have been detected under similar circumstances in Sicily. 

 But the opinions entertained respecting the specific determination 



