110 WILD ANIMALS. 



creature whose howl when excited resembles the maniacal laughter 

 that has given rise to its cognomen of " laughing hyaena." Instead 

 of being marked in stripes, it has the yellowish ground colour 

 of its coat covered with round black spots. A conspicuous 

 distinction between the two species is the almost entire absence 

 of the mane in this one, which, however, has its blackish-brown 

 tail covered with long bushy, hair. 



It is a much more savage beast than its congener of Northern 

 Africa and India. It is also more voracious and destructive, for it 

 not only feasts on carrion, but, driven by hunger, readily takes to 

 the hunting of living prey, such as the antelope and small deer, 

 and frequently commits great havoc among the animals the 

 farmers may happen to leave unprotected. 



The description given in " Knight's Bncyclopzedia," which is 

 taken from the first catalogue of the African Museum, says : " It 

 also often succeeds in killing or mutilating such of the large kind 

 of animals that have not been secured before dusk." Sickly 

 animals, it appears, are less liable to suffer from the voracity of 

 this creature than those that are in full health ; the latter by their 

 rapid flight inspiring their enemy with a courage of which by 

 nature he is destitute; whereas the sickly face him, and thus 

 intimidate him from attacks, which might be successful if made. 

 So anxious is he for the flight of the animals, as a preliminary to 

 his onset, that he uses all the grimace and threatening he can 

 command to induce them to run, and never dares to assail them 

 unless they exhibit great fear. " The character of this hy^na," 

 continues our author, " makes his destruction an object of no small 

 importance to the farmers, whose ingenious snares for him call forth 

 amazing cunning and dexterity on the part of the animal to render 

 them of no avail. The more common methods employed against 

 beasts of prey, such as spring-guns, traps, &c., do not succeed in 

 his case. During his nocturnal wanderings he minutely examines 

 every object that presents itself to his notice with which he is 

 not perfectly familiar ; and if he see reason to suspect that it can 

 injure him he will turn back and make his way in an opposite 

 direction." 



Presumably from tasting the flesh of the dead left upon 



