376 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



them out. He brought with him, from South America, a 

 specimen, from which, as we believe, M. Temminck pub- 

 lished a curious and interesting memoir, in the Annates 

 Generate des Sciences Physiques, treating it as a Hyaena, 

 under the name of the painted Hyaena, (Hyene peinte.) He 

 afterwards presented a scull to the French Museum, and 

 M. Desmarest, adverting to its dentition alone for its gene- 

 ric character, has placed it in his catalogue among the genus 

 Canis. 



The Baron afterwards notices it in the second edition of 

 his Ossemens Fossiles, under the synonymes of Painted 

 Hyaena, Wild Dog, and Hyaena Dog, which last appellative 

 seems most descriptive, and is analogous to the Hyaena 

 Civet, a species also holding a corresponding station between 

 those genera. 



Since these notices, Mr. Burchel, in the second volume 

 of his Travels, has more particularly described it under the 

 name of Hysena Venatica, which we submit, at least in the 

 Cuvierian arrangement, should be rather abandoned for 

 that of the Hyaena Dbg. 



It is smaller, says Mr. Burchel, and of a more slender 

 make than either the Common Striped Hyaena, or the Spot- 

 ted or Crocuta. The general, or ground colour, is a sandy 

 bay or an ochreous yellow, shaded with a darker hair. The 

 whole body is blotched and brindled with black, intermin- 

 gled in various parts with spots of white ; and the legs are 

 generally marked in the same manner. All these spots and 

 markings are exceedingly irregular, and in some degree 

 vary in different individuals. 



We refer to the figure more particularly for the external 

 character and description. 



The osteology of this animal throws the principal diffi- 

 culty in the way of its classification. In the teeth it agrees 

 with Canis, except that the little lobe in front of the false 

 molars is rather more developed. In the ribs and lumbar 

 vertebrae it also agrees with Canis, but it differs from that 



