siis 
THE STORY OF THE HYENA. 
In all my associations with hunters, travellers and naturalists, I have 
never yet been able to find one who would defend the hyena, which by com¬ 
mon consent is classed as the most skulking, cowardly, cruel and treacherous 
of beasts. 
The hyena is remarkable for its predatory, ferocious, and withal cowardly 
habits. There are several hyenas, the striped, the spotted, and the shaggy, 
rough-coated, but the habits of all are very similar. The hyenas, although 
very repulsive in appearance, are yet very useful, as they prowl in search of 
dead animals, especially of the larger kinds, and will devour them even when 
putrid, so' that they act the same part among beasts that the vultures do 
among birds, and are equally uninviting in aspect. They not unfrequently 
dig up recently interred corpses, and in Abyssinia they even flock in numbers 
into the village streets, where they prey on slaughtered men who are thrown 
out unburied. One of these animals attacked the explorer Bruce in his tent, 
and was only destroyed after a severe battle. Their jaws and teeth are ex¬ 
ceedingly powerful, as they can crush the thigh-bone of an ox with appar¬ 
ently little effort; and so great is the strain upon the bones by the exertions 
of these muscles, that the vertebrse of the neck become united together, and 
the animal has a perpetual stiff neck in consequence. 
In Syria and Palestine the favorite, haunts of the striped hyena are the 
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