﻿HYvENA CROCUTA. 7 



Canis, nearly all of these features being noted many years ago by Cuvier l and de Blain- 

 ville. 2 They may be summarised as follows : 



The face is short, the cranium narrow behind the orbits and below the ears, giving 

 rise to very wide and deep temporal fossas. The mandible is even shorter than in Felis t 

 and has the salient angle more marked. The sinuses are very large, occupying the 

 whole sagittal crest from the frontal to the supra-occipital. They are large also in the 

 occipital crest, which is formed by the supra-occipital without the addition of any inter- 

 parietal. The sinuses in the occipital crest often have irregular openings to the surface. 

 The auditory bulla is simple and undivided by a septum, in this respect differing from that 

 of Felts. There is no alisphenoid canal. The pterygoid is prolonged into prominent, 

 backvvardly directed, and sometimes hooked processes. The post-glenoid process of the 

 squamosal is better marked than in Felis and Canis. In some cases processes of the 

 premaxillae and frontals meet and separate the nasals from the maxillae, while in most 

 cases the nasals and maxillae are in contact for a short space ; in the genera Felis and 

 Canis the nasals and maxillae are united along a wide surface. 



(2) Differences between the Skull of the Living Hyaena crocuta and those of Hyaena 

 striata and Hyaena brunnea. — This subject was fully dealt with by Cuvier and 

 de Blainville, and subsequently by Busk. 3 The points of difference are as follows : 



1. The space partially enclosed between the truncated ends of the nasal bones is 

 relatively wider, and its posterior opening is less acute in H. crocuta than in II striata. 



2. In H. crocuta the auditory bulla is considerably mote inflated than in H. stria/a. 



3. The mastoid process of the periotic is more compressed in //. striata than in 

 H. crocuta. 



4. The anterior palatine foramina are relatively larger in II. striata than in H. crocuta. 



5. The rotundity and fulness of the parietal region of the skull is greater in H. 

 crocuta than in H. striata. 



G. The sagittal crest, as noted by Cuvier, is more compressed and distinct in H. striata 

 than in //. crocuta. 



7. The post-orbital process of the frontal is less prominent in H. crocuta than in 

 H. striata. 



8. The pterygoid process is narrower in H. crocuta than in H. striata. 



9. The zygomatic arch is less arched in H. crocuta than in H. striata. 



10. The angle of the mandible is more pronounced in H. crocuta than in H. striata. 



11. The jawbones and zygomatic arch are thicker in H. crocuta than in H. striata. 



1 ' Oss. Foss.,' ed. 3, iv, p. 381. 2 ' Osteographie : Hyenes,' p. 10. 



3 ' Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zoo!.),' ix, p. 59. 



