THE HYENA 201 



stands so singularly apart in his odd ungainliness 

 from the other families of the flesh-eaters, partly 

 by reason of the general detestation in which he 

 is held, and partly by his extraordinary and, it 

 must be confessed, unlovely appearance. His 

 colour varies considerably, but is as a rule of a 

 dirty, yellowish grey, the body covered with 

 brownish spots. At the shoulder the spotted 

 hyena stands probably 3 feet high, sloping abruptly 

 down to the root of his short, skimpy tail. He thus 

 looks disproportionately heavy in the forepart 

 of his structure, an appearance which his massive 

 head goes far to accentuate. In length this 

 animal is probably between 5 and 6 feet ; he is 

 thus a heavy, powerful beast, and personally I 

 am far from sharing the generally accepted sup- 

 position of his invariable cowardice. A curious 

 gland which appears beneath the anus gave rise 

 among the ancients to the quaint supposition that 

 the hyena was hermaphrodite. 



I have for many years entertained, for what 

 appear to me to be good and sufficient reasons, 

 the belief that the spiritless timidity which these 

 animals are so well known to assume is a de- 

 liberately adopted pose. Valour to the hyena 

 would be of but little use, since his place in the 

 order of African events is that of the scavenger, 

 the cleaner-up — the individual, in a word, who does 

 the necessary tidying after the confusion en- 

 gendered by the feasts of the larger flesh-eaters. 

 He need thus only wait for his opportunity, and 

 is singularly well equipped to bear with equa- 

 nimity the painful vacuum of which Nature is said 



