FORAYS BY HYENAS 
hyena, the biggest, strongest, and most dangerous of the three. 
It ranges throughout Africa south of the Sahara, and in prehis- 
toric times into south-central Europe and Asia, as is Spotted 
proved by remains formerly separated as the cave Hyena. 
hyena.” The Dutch colonists call it “wolf,” or “tiger wolf,” 
the leopard being to them a “‘tiger.”’ This repulsive and 
troublesome brute stands about two and a half feet high at the 
shoulder, and five and a half in total length, of which the 
bushy tail takes about fifteen inches. Its unkempt fur; coarse 
and bristly, is dun, irregularly blotched with circular blackish 
spots. This species also lives in a den in the rocks or under- 
ground, and prowls for carrion; but it kills for itself and gains 
courage by numbers, since it goes about in small packs, unit- 
ing to reach their prey by a rude sort of strategy and then over- 
come it by brute ferocity. They play havoc with sheep— or, 
rather, used to do so, for now they are nearly killed out of 
settled parts — and get many victims among the small native 
cattle and donkeys. The early travelers, like Livingstone 
and Harris, say much of such losses, which frequently extend 
to human beings, many children in southern Egypt being 
carried off, even nowadays, or so mauled that their faces are 
mutilated for life. 
A traveler in Somaliland in 1892 had a spotted hyena attack 
and nearly kill one of his camels in broad daylight. It was 
one of a pack of six, all old males, which had so terrorized the 
neighborhood that women or children did not dare go about. 
Mr. Clarke shot the others, one by one; and each time the 
living came and lugged away the dead and hid the bodies un- 
der bushes, keeping off vultures, but making no motion to- 
ward eating them, as is their usual custom. 
The terrific noise made by these creatures seems to baffle 
adequate description, —a weird, hideous, coughing laughter 
which, when a pack joins in, makes so horrible a din in the 
darkness of a mid-African night as to drive the lonely way- 
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