1812. 
THE WILD-DOG OR HUNTING-HYENA. 
229 
to secure them, as usual, in the cattle-pound, the Wilde Honden 
(Wild Dogs,) * had bitten off the tails of three. One had only lost 
the brush, but the others were deprived of the whole. 
This species of hyena is remarkable for hunting in regular 
* Hycena vetiatica, B. (See the note at page 456. of the first volume.) This animal is 
smaller, and of a more slender make, than either the common Striped Hyena, or the Spotted 
or Croctda. The general, or ground, color is a sandy bay, or an ochraceous yellow shaded 
with a darker brown. The whole body is bloatched and brindled with black, intermingled 
in various parts with spots of white ; and the legs are generally marked in the same 
manner. All these spots and markings are exceedingly irregular, and, in some degree, 
vary in different individuals. Its more constant marks are ; a deep black stripe extending 
from the nose up the middle of the face and between the ears : these, blackish both within 
and without, and covered with short close hair which is sometimes very thin : at the 
anterior margin of the ears, on the inside, a thin and observable tuft of whitish hairs : the 
nose and muzzle, black. The tail is bushy like that of the fox, and is divided in the 
middle by a ring of black, above which, or towards the insertion, the color is nearly the 
same as the general tint of the body ; but below, or towards the end, it is white. 
The osteology of this animal throws some difficulty in the way of its generic arrange- 
ment, and even raises some doubt as to the propriety of dividing the Linnaean genus 
Ca?iis by characters which might pass as merely specific, or as convenient only for a 
generic subdivision. The Dog, the Wolf, and this Hyena, correspond in having six 
grinders in their upper jaw : and in their lower, seven ; of which the hindmost is verj- 
small. They also agree in the form, and number, of their ribs and lumbar vertebras ; 
having seven of the latter. Their ribs, of which there are thirteen, are thin and narrow. 
But both in the Striped, and the Spotted, Hyena, they are fifteen in number, and of an 
extraordinary breadth ; and are, proportionally much stronger and larger, than in any 
quadruped of their size : in these, the grinders are only four, or at most five, in number ; 
and the lumbar vertebra not more than five. 
The present animal, therefore, with respect to its teeth, ribs and lumbar vertebrae, 
would be arranged in the genus Cams from which, however, it differs by having but four 
toes on each foot, and, it is said, in other essential particulars. With the genus Hycena, 
it agrees in number of toes, but differs from it in teeth and in conformation of the skeleton. 
These differences were first noticed to me by M.r. Brookes, in whose valuable museum of 
Comparative Anatomy, and by whose liberality, I have had an opportunity of examining 
the skeletons of all these quadrupeds ; and where the animal in question is considered as 
forming a new genus. 
At page 222. and at the end of this chapter, are given Jigures of the Hycena venatica 
in different positions. They were drawn from a living subject given me by my friend 
Mr. Hesse ; and which I kept in my possession for thirteen months, chained up in a stable- 
yard. During that time its ferocious nature deterred every body from an attempt at 
taming it ; but it became at length so much softened in manners, as to play with a common 
domestic dog, also chained up in the yard, without manifesting any desire of hurting its 
companion ; but the man who fed it, dared never to venture his hand upon it. 
