﻿HYAENA CROCUTA. 5 



destroying animal." This description would apply equally well to the state of the 

 bones in almost all the caves in which hyaena remains occur; and the fact that the 

 bones of the hyaena itself are often found gnawed and splintered shows that the animal 

 was sometimes compelled to feed on its own kind. 



The following is a list of British localities in which remains of hyaenas have been 

 found. Boyd Dawkins 1 published a similar list in 1869, and the number of localities 

 has not been much added to since that date. 2 



Caves and Fissures. — Bleadon, Somerset ; Bonghton fissure, Maidstone ; Blackrock 

 fissure, Tenby ; Bench and other caves, Brixham ; Burrington, Somerset ; Calay Cave; 

 Cae Gwyn, North Wales; Cefn, near St. Asaph; Cheddar; Coygau Cave, near 

 Laugharnc, Carmarthen ; Creswell Caves, Derbyshire ; Durdham Down, Bristol ; 

 Ffynnon Beuno, North Wales; Gower Caves (Bacon Hole, Cat's Hole, Caswell Bay, 

 Crow Hole, Long Hole, Minchin Hole, Paviland, RavenscIifT, Spritsail Tor) ; Hutton, 

 Somerset; Hoyle; Ightham fissure, Kent; Kirby Moorside; Kirkdale, Yorkshire; 

 Oreston, Plymouth; Raygill fissure, Yorkshire; Sandford Hill, Somerset; Torquay 

 (Kent's Hole and Tor Bryan) ; Uphill, Somerset ; Victoria Cave, Settle ; Wookey Hole, 

 Somerset ; Yealm Bridge, Devon. 



While the majority of the above were caves of occupation, in some instances, such as 

 Uphill, the bones occur in fissures whose connection with any cave of occupation, though 

 probable, has not been proved. In such cases the bones were probably swept into the 

 fissures by water action. 



Localities other than Caves and Fissures. — Aymestry, Brentford, Dogger Bank, Erith, 

 Fisherton near Salisbury, Grays, Lawford near Rugby, Maidstone, Walton in Essex, 

 Weston-super-Mare, Yarmouth. 



While at the present day Hi/ana crocuta is found only in Africa south of the Sahara, 

 it appears from the above lists that in Pleistocene times it ranged over England and 

 Wales as far north as Yorkshire, not, however, reaching Scotland or Ireland. It has 

 been recorded from caves over the whole of continental Europe, from Spain and Sicily to 

 Poland. One of the most interesting records of the occurrence of the cave hyaena 

 is that from the Karnul Caves in the Madras Presidency. 3 The importance lies in the 

 fact that the area of distribution of the cave hyaena is thereby connected with that of 

 the closely allied Pliocene crocutine hyaenas, such as II. Colvini. Hence it becomes 

 probable that it was in India that the cave hyaena originated, spreading thence into 

 Europe in late Pliocene times. 



For the purpose of the present monograph the bones found in the Somersetshire 

 caves, and especially the very large series from Wookey Hole, preserved in the Taunton 

 Museum, have proved most useful. The series includes two almost complete skeletons 



1 'Quart. Journ. G-eol. Soc.,' xxv, p. 194. 



2 See also Woodward and Slierbom, ' Catal. Brit. Foss. Vert.,' 1890, p. 354. 



3 Lydekker, ' Pal. Iudica,' ser. 10, iv, p. 30. 



