176 



THE SPOTTED HYENA. 



and serves for the attachment of the powerful muscles to which the animal owes its singular 

 strength. So forcibly are these muscles exerted that the vertebrae of the neck are sometimes 

 found to have united together — "anchylosed" according to the professional term, on account 

 of the violent tension to which they were continually subjected. 



The muzzle is but short, and the rough thorn-studded tongue is used, like that of the 

 feline groups, for rasping every vestige of flesh from the bones of the prey. 



The Brown Hyena is so named on account of the color of its fur, which is of a blackish- 

 brown tint, diversified with a lighter hue upon the neck and throat, and a few indistinctly 



STRIPED OR CRESTED HYENA.— Byana stiiata. 



marked bands of a blackish-brown across the legs. The hair of this species is extremely long, 

 and has a decided "set" backwards. 



Sometimes the brown hue of the fur is washed with a wanner tint of chestnut, from which 

 circumstance the animal has been termed "Crocuta rufa," the latter word signifying a ruddy 

 hue, and being applied especially to hair. 



The last of the three acknowledged species of Hyena is a larger and heavier built animal 

 than either of the preceding species, from which it is easily distinguishable by the numerous 

 and well-defined spots that are scattered over its body and limbs. The Spotted Hyena, or 

 Tiger Wolf, as it is generally called, is, for a Hyena, a fierce and dangerous animal, invading 

 tIip sheep-folds and cattle-pens under the cover of darkness, and doing in one night more mis- 

 chief than can be remedied in the course of years. 



