14 



THE FOOD OF ANIMALS 



susceptible to the poison of the last-named animals, their extra- 

 ordinary activity generally saves them from being bitten. Allusion 

 has elsewhere been made to their fabled knowledge of vegetable 

 antidotes to snake-bite, which rests upon no foundation in fact. 

 The Crab - eating Mangousti (Herpestes urvd) of South - east 

 India, Further India, and South China, is said to be semi-aquatic, 

 and to feed upon frogs and crabs. 



Hy^na Family 



The Carnivores so far dealt with prey upon living animals, 

 but nothing is wasted in nature, and scavengers are needed to 



Fig. 311. — Spotted or Laughing Hysena {HytEna crocuia) 



deal with carrion. To this category belong the unsavoury 

 Hyaenas (fig. 311), though they also attack the more defenceless 

 mammals. Their specialized teeth are eminently adapted to a 

 carnivorous diet, and with this specialization goes a reduction in 

 number, as in the Cat Family, though in this case the reduction 

 has not gone quite so far, there being thirty-four teeth as against 

 thirty in the latter family. So powerful are the jaws of Hyenas 

 that they can negotiate skeletons which have been picked clean 

 by other animals, and swallow large quantities of bone in order 



