THE WILD DOGS OF AFRICA 
235 
body slopes from the front shoulders to the rear haunches. The claws 
resemble those of the dog, in that they cannot be retracted in sheaths 
of skin; here, therefore, we have a great and marked difference from 
all the cat tribe. 
The hyenas, both the striped and spotted varieties, form part 
of that large body of animals which act as scavengers, or, in other 
words, which remove decaying animals and vegetable matter from the 
face of the earth, and so prevent it from giving off evil vapors which 
might be the cause of disease. These animals, in fact, perform in 
the world just the same service as do the street cleaners in our towns 
and villages, and form our first examples of the servants of nature 
whose work is just the same as that of certain servants of our own. 
Now, as there is so vast a quantity of refuse matter daily to be 
carried away, nature has divided her scavengers into several classes, 
to one of which is given the task of removing putrefying flesh, to 
another that of disposing of decaying vegetable matter, and so on. 
And the task of the hyenas is that of devouring the bones of animals 
killed by the cats, which you will recollect I told you they do not eat 
themselves, and also of those which may have died from other causes. 
As many of the animals which they devour are of very large 
size, it is evident enough that the jaws of the hyenas must be immensely 
strong, in order to enable them to perform their work of breaking 
bones and tearing flesh; and no one who has ever seen a hyena engaged 
in feeding can doubt for a moment that nature has taken care to fulfil 
this requirement. With one bite of its powerful jaws it can crush the 
leg-bone of an ox to splinters, crunching it as easily as though it were 
a stick of celery, and seem to think no more of it than we should of a 
slice of bread and butter. 
As the hyena lives during the day-time in burrows which it 
scoops out by means of its fore legs, these limbs are very powerful, 
and the claws are large and strong. The whole strength of the animal, 
indeed, seems to lie in the head, shoulders, and fore legs, the hinder 
parts of the body being so small and feeble in comparison, that they 
indeed scarcely seem to form part of the same creature. 
The tail is bushy, the snout long, but blunt, giving the beast a 
snub-nosed appearance and a horribly vulgar expression, quite dif- 
