CARNIVORA. 
107 
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THE SPOTTED HYJENA. l’hIENE TACHETEE. 
Canis Crocuta. L. 
This animal stands something higher, particularly 
on the fore legs, than the last ; the mane is not so 
long or bushy, and does not reach down the back ; 
and the dirty gray colour, which extends all over its 
body, is varied with spots of a deeper shade, instead 
of stripes. It is found principally in South Africa, 
and is the tiger-wolf of the Cape ; while the striped 
variety is resident toward the north and north-east 
of that immense continent. In all other particulars 
these two species seem to accord ; and from the 
neighbourhood of the Cape, as far north as the coast 
of Guinea and Mosambique, the spotted hyaena is 
the same troublesome, voracious pest, as the other is 
found to be in Abyssinia, Egypt, and Asia. 
The lazy, indolent, and filthy habits of the Africans 
expose them probably in a greater degree to the 
depredations and ferocity of the hyaenas, which are 
constantly lurking and prowling about their villages, 
to pick up the offal of animal bodies, which these 
indolent beings will not take the trouble to bury or 
conceal 5 and it is surely attributing far too partial a 
design to Providence, to suppose that these ferocious 
beasts are sent to do that, which the most ordinary 
human industry might effect with ease. It must not 
