70 MR. G. BUSK ON THE EXISTING SPECIES 0¥ HTJiNA. 



between these two species. The principal points, as it seems to 

 me, to which attention should be directed, are : — 



1. The form of the cranium. 



2. The shape of the occipital triangle. 



3. The width of the condyles. 



4. The width of the pterygoid gutter. 



5. The expansion and breadth of the zygomatic arch and of the 

 zygoma. 



6. The size and proportion and form of the teeth, and more 

 especially of the upper and lower carnassials, and of the upper 

 and lower 2nd and 3rd premolars and canines. The relative 

 size of these two teeth and the proportionate degree of deve- 

 lopment of their anterior talons are of all characters the most 

 striking and the most readily available. 



(4.) "With the objects I had in view in drawing up these observa- 

 tions, I have thought it unnecessary to indicate all the secondary 

 points in which H. Irunnea differs from H. crocuta. No one can 

 have any difficulty in distinguishing them ; and all the informa-- 

 tion I can afford, so far as comparative measurements are con- 

 cerned, will be found in the Tables accompanying this paper. I 

 shall therefore merely offer a few observations on the subject of 

 the existence of two distinct forms of " Spotted Hyena," as evi- 

 denced in the cranial and dental characters. But before enter- 

 ing upon that subject I may be allowed to say a few words with 

 respect to the opinions that have been published regarding the 

 existence of two kinds of " Spotted Hyena." 



Pennant, who was the first to lay down, in 1771, the generic 

 distinction between Ganis and Hycena, was also the first clearly to 

 describe a second species of the latter genus under the name of 

 " Spotted Hyena," taking his description, as he says, from a living 

 specimen which had been exhibited in London a few years before. 

 In 1777 Erxleben*, though still arranging Hycena under the Lin- 

 nsean genus Ganis, adopts Pennant's "Spotted Hyena" as a species, 

 and translating his description into Latin, gives the species the 

 name of Ganis crocuta, citing as synonyms the " Hycena, sive con- 

 gener illi Groctita,'" of Ludolphus, JEthiop. lib. i. c. 10, p. 50 ; and 

 the Quambergo of Barbot, Gruin. p. 86, and the Jackals or 

 Boshund of Bossman, Travels in Gruinea, p. 291, &c. Amongst 

 the characters of this "West African species, he gives ^^ cauda 

 hrevis, nigra, villosa." In a brief communication in Oken's " Isis" 

 for 1828, p. 1144, Kaup observes that the common and the 

 spotted Hyenas differ so widely that they may very properly be 

 * Systema Eegni animalis, &c. Lipsise, 1777, p. 575. 



