53 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCKLAND. 
[CH. III. 
“ ‘ The Companion to the Royal Menagerie, Exeter 
’Change, containing concise descriptions, scientific and 
interesting, of the curious foreign animals now in that emi¬ 
nent collection, derived from actual observation, by Edward 
Cross, Proprietor, 1820/ describes Billy, then in his youth, 
but amiable withal :—‘ The hyena in a cage at the end of 
the room is possessed of a large share of good humour, and 
entertains the visitors at feeding time by the gesticula¬ 
tions of delight he manifests at the moment, and by his 
curious imitations of the human voice resembling laughter. 
This animal suffers himself to be caressed, and is so 
familiar with the keepers, that when any repairs are 
wanting in his cage they have no hesitation in going- 
in with him. (N.B.—This was before the day of Van 
Hamborough, and other lion kings.) He is a native of the 
Cape of Good Hope, and is frequently called the Tiger 
Wolf.’ Billy arrived in England in the year 1820, and 
he died in his den a peaceable quiet death, January 14th, 
1846, having lived just a quarter of a century within this 
metropolis. . . . 
“ At his decease (the cause of death, plus old age, 
being an enormous goitre in the throat), Dr. Buckland 
presented his carcass to the Royal College of Surgeons, 
reserving, however, the skin for himself. . . . Billy first 
made his debut as the youngest hyena in England ; he 
ended his career grim and grisly as the oldest hyena 
in England, and probably in Europe. The stuffed skin 
is now at the College of Surgeons in company with his 
skeleton, having been bought at the sale (of the Dean’s 
effects, January 1857) by Professor Quckctt. Not only 
was Billy subservient to the cause of science when dead, 
but even when alive he unknowingly gave much important 
assistance to his former owner, then busy with the ‘ Reliquiae 
Diluvianae,’ for Billy cracked the marrow-bones of oxen, 
and refused those bones which contained no marrow, 
exactly as did his ancestors ages before him in the wilds 
of Yorkshire, as yet untrodden by the foot of man. So 
wonderfully alike were these bones in their fracture, that, 
judging from this point alone, it was impossible to say 
