MAMMALIA. FERIE. Dog. 139 



• 



being capable of living for a long time without food : It frequents burying grounds, in which it digs 

 up the graves of the dead, and feafts on the half putrid carcaffes of mankind. Whatever fubftance 

 is prefented to it, when angry, it feizes in its teeth, and holds firmly with the mod unconquerable 

 obftinacy, not quitting its hold but with its life ; and from this circumftance it becomes an eafy prey 

 to the hunters. It is about the fize of a large Dog, and refemblcs a wild Bear in its countenance. 

 The hair on the ridge of the back is erect, near a fpan long, and black at the points ; the eyes 

 are placed near the fnout ; the ears are naked ; the tail is generally variegated with black rings, 

 and has the hair long and furroundiag it in a radiated bufh at the extremity ; the body is of an aih 

 colour, marked with tranfverfe ftreaks, from the back downwards to the belly.— This animal is appa- 

 rently allied to the Bear and Badger ; having, like the latter, a tranfverfe orifice, or fack, which fe- 

 cretes a foetid matter, fituated between the tail and the anus. 



Mr Pennant, with confiderable propriety, feparates this animal, and the two next, from the genus 

 of Dog, making them two fpecies of a diftinct genus, under the name of Hyaena. The difti •.Idl- 

 ing marks are, the fhort tail, the tranfverfe orifice under the tail, the having fix fore-teeth in the 

 lower jaw, and only four toes on each foot. 



7. Abyffiman Hyaena. — C. Hyaena aethioplcus. 



The tail is bufhy ; and the body is marked with curved ftripes. Bruce, Abyfl'. v. 107. 

 and fig. 



Inhabits Abyfilnia, and the north-eaft of Africa.— Whether this animal, as defcribed and figured 

 by Mr Bruce, be a difiinft fpecies, I do not pretend to determine. In magnitude, ferocity, and man- 

 ners, it refembles the following fpecies; but its body, which is of a yellowifh brown colour, is marked 

 with curved ftripes of black, in form of a reverfed Italian/,- the muzzle is black; the legs are ftriped 

 acrofs with black ; and the bufhy tail is of a reddifh brown colour. — T. 



8. Spotted Hyaena. — 6. C. Hyaena Crocuta. 10. 



Has a ftraight tail ; four toes on all the feet 5 and the body is fpotted with black. 

 Erxleben, hift. mam. 578. 



Hyaena, or Crocuta, congeneric with the former animal. Ludolf. ^Ethiop. B. i. c. 10. n. 50. — 



Quumbengo. Barbot, Guin. 486 Jachhals, or Bofhund. Boffin. Guin. 291. — Spotted Hyaena. 



Penn. hift. of quad. n. 150. pi. xxix. fig. 2. 



Inhabits Guinea, Ethiopia, Abyffinia, the Cape of Good Hope, and all the intermediate countries 

 of Africa. — Lives in holes of the ground, and clefts, or caverns, among rocks. Preys, by night, on 

 cattle, iheep, and horfes, even attacking mankind, and digs up graves to feed on dead bodies : Has a 

 terrible howling voice. The upper part of the head, and the face, are black; the mane is fhort and 

 black; the body and limbs are covered with fhort, foft, hair of a reddifh brown colour, marked with 

 round black fpots ; the tail is fhort and bufhy. This fpecies is confiderably fuperior in fize, ftrength, 

 and ferocity, to the former, infomuch that it is able to carry off, and with great fpeed, a full grown 

 man. The head is large and flat, having fome long hairs above each eye, and very large whifkers on 

 each fide of the note. 



S 2 g. 



