90 THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



markings; broad brown bars on the inside of legs; tail long and 

 slender, tipped with black, same colour as body^ with some dark- 

 coloured rings. \ 



This species, which is rarely found South of the Orange River, but 

 is common within the tropics, seems to be often confounded with 

 the Booted Lynx (Felis caligatd), which does not appear to be 

 known South of the Zambesi. The animal now under notice will 

 always be found frequenting low marshy ground in which there is 

 plenty of cover in the shape of reeds, or in the thick bush bordering 

 the rivers and lakes, its food consisting not alone of such water -fowl 

 as can be snatched by it when they are resting on the margin of the 

 water, but also of fish ; and its spoor may be constantly observed 

 imprinted on the soft mud surrounding such pools in the periodical 

 watercourses which are rapidly becoming desiccated, and in which 

 many species of the finny tribe may probably be imprisoned without 

 a possibility of escape. 



The Spotted Hyena {Crocuta maculata). — Teegre Voolfoi\h& 

 Dutch; Peeree of the Bechuanas. 



[General colour, dirty yellowish brown, indistinctly spotted all 

 over with the same colour, but of a darker hue, and inclined to run 

 in lines; hair short; scarcely any appearance of mmie; head large 

 in pi^oportion to size of body, and betraying extraordinary strength in 

 the jaw. The hind considerably shorter than the fore legs; ears 

 rounded and not pointed as in the Brown Hyena. It is rare to obtain a 

 specimen unaffected with mange, and in some cases the skin of the 

 lower portion of the legs is found eaten away by the disease.] 



This is the common Hyena of the Interior of South Africa. It is 

 doubtful whether it still exists in the Cape Colony, Natal, or the 

 Orange Free State, and is very scarce in the Transvaal and on the 

 Western borders of Bechuanaland. In the Kanya and Bakwaina 

 countries of the Protectorate the natives still suifer from its depre- 

 dations in their sheep and goat kraals, but between the Crocodile 

 and Zambesi Rivers, where other beasts of prey are to be met with, 

 it is sure to be about, and it is seldom that a Lion proceeds on 

 its nightly rounds unattended at a respectful distance by at least 

 two or three Hyenas. Only prowling after dark, and at all 

 times an arrant sneaking coward, little danger may be apprehended 



