THE DOG FAMILY 67 



night, lest a hyaena should enter and carry off one of the smaller 

 sleepers. 



So cautious and cunning are these animals, that they have been 

 known to take an infant from its mother's arms without awaken- 

 ing her; and a prowling hyaena has been known to crush in the 

 skull of a man sleeping with a party of others, and drag his body 

 away, without disturbing his companions. 



One of these animals, known as the Spotted or Laughing 

 Hysena, is remarkable for the extraordinary cries to which it 

 gives vent when excited. At such times it behaves in a most 

 singular manner, standing upon its hind-legs, turning round and 

 round, dancing up and down, bowing its head towards the ground, 

 and performing all manner of ungainly antics, uttering meanwhile 

 its hideous laughing cry, which can be heard for a very considerable 

 distance. 



In olden days it was thought that when the animal "laughed " 

 in this manner it was endeavouring to imitate the cries of a human 

 being in distress, in order to allure some passer-by to a spot from 

 whence it might spring upon him. 



The African settlers destroy this hyaena in a very simple 

 but ingenious manner. Fastening a spring-gun in position, they 

 fix a piece of meat upon the muzzle, and connect it by a cord, or 

 the stem of some creeping plant, with the trigger. As soon as 

 the hyaena attempts to pull away the meat, the gun is discharged, 

 and the animal falls dead with a bullet through its brain. 



The Dog Family 



The dogs that we know in everyday life have, like the cats, a 

 large number of wild relations which endeavour as a rule to keep 

 as far as possible from the haunts of men. The Canidae, as the 

 whole of the Dog tribe are called, include, in addition to the many 

 kinds of dogs which we all know by sight, the wolf, the fox, the 

 jackal, and a number of other inhabitants of field and forest. 



