The Cheetah and Hyzna. 27 
writers are agreed on the immense speed exhibited by these 
animals when slipped at the game. The fleetest of antelopes 
rarely escapes the rush of a cheetah which has once well sighted 
his quarry, and it has been asserted that a greyhound cannot 
run into a doe, where a cheetah will almost certainly pull it 
down. In some instances the animal betrays its feline affinities 
by crouching and dodging, and taking advantage of cover, or 
waiting for the game to cross its track, and it usually seems 
reluctant to renew its efforts in case of failure. This has been 
attributed to the inability of the cheetah to “take another 
breath” after such great muscular exertion; but this is physio- 
logically absurd, and the superstition is disposed of by the 
simple fact of a second rush being sometimes made immediately 
afterwards at another antelope in the herd. 
Jerdon’s description of the manners of his cheetah impresses 
one favourably with their docility. It played amiably with the 
dogs, followed him about on horseback, purred like a cat when 
fondled, and behaved admirably with human beings generally. 
When roused, however, the animal becomes as formidable an 
antagonist as any cat. A case is recorded of an African 
cheetah having been wounded, and dragging one man from 
his horse, mauling him frightfully, and killing another who 
came to the rescue of his comrade. 
In many respect even more like a dog is the hyena. Here the 
dentition is also peculiar, the claws are not at all retractile, the 
head possesses roughly similar outlines, and the voice is a short, 
rapidly repeated bark, simulating the derisive laugh of a human 
being. The habit of associating in packs is again distinctly 
characteristic of the genus canis, as well as that of digging up a 
dead carcase and feeding on carrion. No other existing car- 
nivore is provided with so powerful a bone mill in the jaws, 
actuated by such immense muscles. It is an easy task to a 
hyzna to break the shafts of the largest bones of the horse to 
obtain his favourite bonne bouche, the marrow, and this charac- 
teristic may been seen in all his fossil representatives. 
The capacity for digesting bone, too, is astonishing. The 
