HY/ENA CROCUTA. 5 



destroying aniiual," This description would tip))!}' ccpially well to the state of the 

 bones in almost all the caves in which hyijcna remains occur; and the fact that the 

 bones of the h\a;na itself are often found gnawed and splintered shows that the animal 

 was sometimes compelled to feed on its own kind. 



The following is a list of British localities in which renuiins of hyocnas have been 

 found. Boyd Dawkins^ published a similar list in 1SG9, and the nund)er of localities 

 hiis not been much added to since that datc.^ 



Caves and Fissures. — Bleadon, Someiset; Boughton fissure, Maidstone; Blackroek 

 fis>ure, Tenby ; Bench and other caves, Biixham ; Burrington, Somerset ; Calay Cave; 

 Cae Gwyn, North Wales; Cefn, near St. Asaph; Cheddar; Coygau Cave, near 

 Laugliarne, Carmarthen ; Creswell Caves, Derbyshire ; Durdham Down, Bristol ; 

 Ffynnon Beuno, North Wales; Gower Caves (Bacon Hole, Cat's Hole, Caswell Bay, 

 Crow Hole, Long Hole, Minchin Hole, Paviland, RavensclilT, S[)ritsail Tor) ; Hntton, 

 Somerset; Hoyle ; Ightliam fissure, Kent; Kirby Moorside ; Kirkdale, Yorkshire; 

 Oreston, Plymouth; Baygill fissure, Yorkshire; Sandford Hill, Somerset; Torquay 

 (Kent's Hole and Tor Bryan) ; Uphill, Somerset ; Victoria Cave, Settle ; Wookey Hole, 

 Somerset ; Yealm Bridge, Devon. 



While the majority of the above were caves of occupation, in some instances, such as 

 Uphill, the bones occur in fissures whose connection with any cave of occupation, though 

 })robable, has not been proved. In such cases the bones were [)robably swept into the 

 fissures by water action. 



Localities other than Caves and Fissures. — Aymestry, Brentford, Dogger Bank, Erith, 

 Fisherton near Salisbury, Grays, Lawford near Rugby, Maidstone, AYalton in Essc.k, 

 Weston-super-Mare, Yarmouth. 



While at the present day Ilijcena crocuta is found only in Africa south of the Sahara, 

 it appears from the above lists that in Pleistocene times it ranged over England and 

 Wales as far north as Y''orkshire, not, however, reaching Scotland or Ireland. It has 

 been recorded from caves over the whole of continental Europe, from Spain and Sicily to 

 Poland. One of the most interesting records of the occurrence of the cave hyaena 

 is that from the Karnul Caves in the Madras Presidency.'^ The importance lies in the 

 fact that the area of distribution of the cave hyicna is thei'cby connected with that of 

 the closely allied Pliocene crocutinc hyycuas, such as //. Coloini. Hence it becomes 

 probable that it was in India that the cave hyaena originated, spreading thence into 

 Europe in late Pliocene times. 



For the purpose of the present monograph the bones found in the Somersetshire 

 caves, and especially the vei'y large series from Wookey Hole, preserved in the Taunton 

 Museum, have proved most useful. The series includes two almost complete skeletons 



' 'Quart. Jouni. Geol. Soc.,' xxv, \). ll»k 



■ Sec also Woodward aud Sherboru, ' Catal. Brit. Foss. Vert.,' iHltO, p. 354. 



'^ Ljdekker, 'Pal. ludica,' sor. 10, iv, p. 30. 



