28 The Carnivora. 
keeper at the Zoological Gardens told me that he once threw 
six of the shank bones of the sheep to a hyena, and the animal, 
instead of crushing them, tossed up his head and swallowed 
them whole, one after the other. In view of such a performance 
it is little wonder the man remarked to me: “I can’t think how 
he could turn round with all those things in his inside.” How- 
ever, the beast suffered no inconvenience from his gluttony. 
All travellers agree in giving the hyena the character of an 
ignoble, cowardly beast, though very destructive to flocks when 
a pack makes a raid at night. Livingstone quaintly says: “ His 
courage resembles that of a turkey cock. He will bite if an 
animal is running away, but if the animal stands still so does 
he.” When fighting with its own kind, the hyzna is said to 
have the peculiar habit of kneeling in front of his adversary, 
for the purpose, it is believed, of protecting his legs from the 
trenchant teeth, which he knows well would break them like. 
straws. 
