33 
HYENAS. 
In a later part of the same poem he goes on to say that 
“ Nature then to me was all in all. 
F rom her I ofttimes clearly learnt to hear 
The still sad music of humanity, 
Not harsh, nor grating, hut of ample power. 
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts : a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused. 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns. 
And the round ocean, and the living air. 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ; 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought. 
And rolls through all things.” 
\V. J. C. Miller. 
(To he continued.) 
HYENAS. 
F this family of digitigrade animals but three distinct 
species appear now to be known, viz., the striped, the 
spotted, and the brown, though in years long gone by, 
i.e., before the glacial epoch or “ Ice Age,” there were 
many other kinds ; indeed remains of them have been found in 
many parts of Europe, and in England, especially in a cave 
near York, traces of them have been found discovered, and to 
which palaeontologists have assigned the name Hycena spelaa. 
In this short account I propose to deal only with the striped 
hyaena (striata), which is to be found in very much the same 
localities as the Indian jackal, though not in Ceylon. It ranges 
from India into Persia, Arabia, Egypt and some parts of Africa. 
Unlike the jackal, however, which is gregarious, the hyaena goes 
alone, or at most with one or two others of its kind, but it is like 
the jackal in being nocturnal in its habits, and it is by night only 
that it is found on the prowl for food. A carrion eater, as I have 
before observed, it is one of the best of Nature’s scavengers, 
cleansing the earth of putrid animal matter, consuming the car- 
cases of all dead animals, and by the e.xceptional power of its 
jaws it is able to crush the largest bones, seeking for the marrow 
in them which is its most favourite morsel. 
If let alone the hyaena does not usually attack man, but I have 
known it to carry off native children when left unguarded ; it is 
more often on the look out for sheep and goats, and will wantonly 
destroy numbers in a flock before carrying off one, and curiously 
enough it has a special penchant for mules and donkeys. 
In appearance and style it is not unlike the wolf, but it 
differs from that animal in being possessed of a shaggy mane 
on the neck and back, and with even coarser hair on the body. 
