106 WILD ANIMALS. 



All writers agree that the hygena lacks courage, and is only 

 ferocious when he himself is secure from harm. McMaster,^ the 

 well-known Indian sportsman, illustrating the faint-heartedness of 

 these creatures, writes : " Shortly after daybreak I had shot> a 

 bear that died almost immediately; ere long, a large hyaena 

 blundered up the same path the bear had taken. I did not wish 

 to waste a shot on him, and he stumbled on for some distance in 

 the vacant-looking and undecided way of his race. Suddenly, 

 having caught the scent of blood or dead flesh, he became a 

 different and rather fine-looking creature, as he rushed with head 

 and tail well up, the latter waving almost in the style of a fox- 

 hound, while ' drawing ' direct to the spot, and in his hungry haste 

 jumped on a stone, beside which was the dead bear, and almost 

 on the carcase. All at once matters changed, and I shall not soon 

 forget the horror-struck look of the hyeena, as stiffened as if by 

 magic, too frightened to move back or forward, and with every 

 bristle erect, like a worried cat, he stood quivermg over the body ; 

 although I had spared it before, I could not resist taking his 

 worthless life as he stood." 



Many sportsmen and travellers try to create a prejudice against 

 the hysenas, both on account of their habits, which, on the one 

 hand, they call cowardly, and on the other, unclean, and because 

 hunting them is not considered good sport : hence they very rarely 

 give any description of these animals, but only allude occasionally 

 to their being disturbed by their midnight howling, which, by-the- 

 bye, is often confounded with that of the jackals. Jules Gerard, 

 the lion-killer, in his book, first set this example, and he says the 

 Arabs have a saying, " as cowardly as a hy^na," and that they 

 scorn in attacking it even to use their guns, but that when one 

 finds a hyaena in a hole he takes a handful of dirt and presents it 

 to him, saying " Come and I will render you beautiful with henna." 

 " The hyaena holds out his paw, the Arab seizes it, drags him out, 

 then gags him, and causes him to be stoned by the women and 

 children of the douar as a cowardly and unclean beast." 



That these animals prefer carrion of all description to other 

 food seems to be well authenticated ; but ' this very habit is of 



^ " Notes on Jerdon's Mammals of India," by A, C. McMaster. 



