154 



THE HYENAS. 



to say which, drop in one by one as they find 

 themselves unable to make the running any longer; 

 and the chase, generally a gnu or a water-antelope, 

 pressed first by one and then another, though it 

 may distance the pack for a while, soon comes 

 back to it, and is in the end almost invariably run 



into. The only thing to which I can compare these 

 animals, and their instinct, as people call it, is a pack 

 of hounds hunted and whipped in to by members of 

 their own body, and combining in one human rea- 

 son and brute cunning and power." — Drummond, 

 The Large Game of South and South-east Africa. 



THE HYENAS 



(HY^NID^). 



Digitigrade carnivoras, with powerful body decreasing in size from before backwards; mostly with four toes 



on all four feet, and at most 34 teeth. 



The hyjenas form only a small group 

 among the Carnivora of the present day, but 

 played a more important role, especially 

 during the earlier part of the Quaternary 

 epoch. They are animals inferior in size 

 only to the large felines and bears, and are 

 distinguished at the first glance by the great 

 disproportion between their very strong but 

 somewhat crooked fore-limbs and their weak 

 hinder quarters. 



The head is massive, broad behind, the 

 muzzle short, the ears pretty large and pointed, 

 the eyes placed at the side, very prominent 

 and with round pupils, the nose short and 

 blunt, the tail short but bushy; the fore-limbs 

 are longer than the hind-limbs, but are always 

 curved inwards. In the true hyaenas all the 

 feet have four toes armed with strong non- 

 retractile claws, while the abnormal genus 

 composed of the earth-wolves (Proteles) has 

 five toes on the fore-feet like dogs. The fur 

 is very long and coarse, but not very thick; 

 longer hairs form a mane on the nape of the 

 neck and the front part of the back. All 

 hyenas have a rather large gland on each 

 side of the anus, and from these glands there 

 proceeds a strong disagreeable odour. 



The skull of the hyaenas somewhat resembles 

 that of the Felids in the round form and 

 comparatively small capacity of the brain- 



case, in the great development of the ridges 

 for the attachment oi the muscles, in the 

 wide sweep of the zygomatic arches, and in 

 the shortness and strength of the jaws. 

 The processes of the neck vertebrae are 

 unusually well developed. The rest of the 

 skeleton approaches that of the Canidae in 

 structure. 



The dentition is very remarkable. The 

 strong middle incisors have chisel -shaped 

 crowns mostly ground down by use, while the 

 outermost incisors are conical and similar in 

 form to the strong, almost straight, and not 

 very sharp canines. The three premolars 

 which follow the canines in each jaw are 

 single-cusped, the first too low, the third very 

 large and strong. Ne.xt comes in each half 

 of each jaw an enormous carnassial tooth. 

 Those in the upper jaw have each two broad 

 sharp lobes which form an angle at their 

 point of union, so that the tooth, supported 

 as it is by a strong internal heel or process, 

 when seen from above presents the form of 

 a half-moon. In the upper jaw this formid- 

 able carnassial is followed by a small tuber- 

 cled tooth, which is wanting in the lower jaw. 

 The carnassial of the upper jaw is present 

 even in the milk dentition, while that of the 

 lower jaw, on the other hand, first appears 

 in the permanent set of teeth. In each jaw 



