Bones discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire. 191 
hyaenas to devour those of their own species that die in the 
course of nature ; or under the pressure of extreme hunger 
to kill and eat the weaker of them, is a point on which it is 
not easy to obtain positive evidence. Mr. Brown however 
asserts, in his journey to Darfur, “ that it is related of the 
hyasnas, that upon one of them being wounded, his compa- 
nions instantly tear him to pieces and devour him.” It seems 
therefore in the highest degree probable, that the mangled 
relics of hyasnas that lie indiscriminately scattered and equally 
broken with the bones of other animals in the cave of Kirk- 
dale, were reduced to this state by the agency of the surviv- 
ing individuals of their own species. 
A large proportion of the hyasnas' teeth bear marks of 
extreme old age, some being abraded to the very sockets, and 
the majority having lost the upper portion of their coronary 
part, and having fangs extremely large : these probably died 
in the den from mere old age : and if we compare the lace- 
rated condition of the bones that accompany them, with the 
state of the teeth thus worn down to the very stumps, not- 
withstanding their prodigious strength, we find in the latter 
the obvious instruments by which the former were thus com- 
minuted. A great number of other teeth appear to have be- 
longed to young hyaenas, for the fangs are not developed, 
and the points and edges of the crown not the least worn 
down. I have a fragment of the jaw of an hyaena which died 
so young, that the second set of its teeth had not been pro- 
truded, but were in the act of forming within the jaw. (See 
Plate XIX. fig. 3, 4.) Others are in various stages of ad- 
vancement towards maturity ; and the proportion of these is 
too great for us to attribute them to animals that may have 
