NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
usually compared to the wild laugh of a maniac, 
which has given rise to the name often applied to 
this creature, viz. the Laughing Hyena. This 
maniacal cry is invariably heard during the mating 
season, or when these hyenas are unduly excited 
from some other cause. Nothing in the way of 
flesh comes amiss to this large hulking beast. It 
is a true scavenger, for it will devour flesh in even a 
liquid state of putrefaction. Failing a supply of 
carrion to satisfy its prodigious appetite, it resorts 
to killing and devouring any living thing it is able 
to surprise and overpower. It is a poor runner, 
and therefore antelopes rarely fall a prey to it. It 
steals upon game birds in the night, and should 
flocks of migratory locusts, which are such a terrible 
/ pest to man, be in the neighbourhood, they are 
devoured by this animal in vast numbers. When 
the sun sets these locusts are obliged to roost, for 
the cool air partly paralyses them. When trees 
are available they swarm upon them, but it- is 
seldom, except in. forest regions, that they find 
sufficient of this form of foliage, and consequently 
they ‘alight in millions upon the ground and low 
bushes, and are thus within reach of prowling 
hyznas, jackals, and scores of other carnivorous 
night prowlers. Of course, when in the wingless 
stage of development, locusts are at the mercy of 
animals day and night, and whole swarms are swept 
out of existence by animals such as the Spotted 
Hyena. 
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