HYAENAS. 
489 
small and nearly round crown, and that it is inserted only by a single root, whereas 
the corresponding tooth of the striped species has two distinct roots. Then, again, 
the lower flesh-tooth resembles that of the jaw figured on p. 482, in the small size 
of its posterior heel, and also in the absence of a cusp on the inner side of the 
blade. 
Owing to the disproportion in the length of the hind and fore-legs being much 
less than in the striped hyaena, the gait of the spotted hyaena is far less ungainly 
and a wk ward-look in tr. 
O 
The spotted hyaena occurs throughout Africa south of the Sahara, ranging on 
THE SPOTTED HYiENA ( T \- nat. Size). 
the eastern side of the continent into Abyssinia and Nubia. At one time it 
was very abundant in the Cape Colony, and Sir Samuel Baker bears testimony 
as to its numbers on the Upper Nile in the neighbourhood of Kassala, while 
Mr. H. H. Johnston attests its common occurrence on the plains around 
Kilima-njaro. Formerly, however, the geographical range of this hyaena was 
far more extensive than it is at present, as is proved by the vast quantities 
of its remains found in the caves of various parts of Europe, from Gibraltar in 
the south to Yorkshire in the north. It was formerly considered, indeed, that 
the so-called “ cave-hyaena ” indicated a distinct species from the living one; but 
zoologists are now generally in accord in regarding the two as specifically 
