Spotted Hyasna r r 



litter to be four ; personally I have only seen two. The young are said to be 

 easily tamed. Sportsmen always regard hyaenas as vermin, for they show no 

 sport even when brought to bay. They are an inconceivable nuisance when 

 one is placing baits for lions. The carcase must be put well up in a tree or 

 the hyaena will jump at it till he drags it down. The big brute whose 

 dimensions I have given above was carrying nearly the whole carcase of an 

 impala ewe, having seized it over the loins, and, holding his head high, was 

 making off through some long grass with it, when, believing it was a 

 young lion (the light was bad, it being very early in the morning), I 

 fired, and knocked it over. Then advancing very cautiously, as I still heard 

 the animal struggling in the grass, and thought it might possibly charge, 

 I soon discovered it was a hyaena, the finest of its kind I ever saw, and of 

 so pale a yellow colour, that its resemblance in the long grass to a lion 

 was most perfect. I never before saw a hyaena thus carrying a carcase. 



F. Vaughan Kirby. 



Somali Name, Waraba 



This is the commonest hyaena in the Somali country, and is to be seen 

 everywhere. The skin is yellow, thickly marked with brown spots, the 

 hair is short, and there is a small ridge of hair on the neck and withers ; 

 the tail is not bushy like that of the striped hyaena. Though half a dozen 

 or more will collect round a kill, they are not gregarious, but go in ones or 

 twos. Any number could be shot, but there is no sport in shooting them. 

 If there is a kill you are sure to see them at it during the night. They 

 generally appear at sunset, or shortly before, and I have often seen them in 

 the daytime prowling round when an animal has been shot. They will 

 attack and kill sheep in the daytime, and at night-time will slay cattle or 

 donkeys. You cannot tie out any animal as a bait for lions without sitting 



