202 
THE MAMMALS OF EGYPT. 
Major Penton sends the following field-notes on this species : — “ The Spotted Hysena 
is abundant at Tokar, 40 or 60 miles south of Suakin, but at the latter place it is rarely 
if ever seem These brutes prowl round in packs of five or six, chiefly in the spring 
and early summer. In the height of summer they are not so often heard at night. 
Their cry is one of the most weird of all sounds I have ever heard. The natives dig 
deep trenches, leaving a small patch of ground in the middle on which a kid is tethered. 
In this way they often catch them. The natives have also a clever way of catching 
them by means of a ring of wood with spikes radiating from the sides to the centre, all 
pointing in the same direction. The ring is put over a hole and a rope also; the 
hygena’s foot passes through the ring, and in his efiForts at getting rid of it the rope 
tightens. [This is similar to the trap used for gazelles, described by Mr. Jennings 
Bramly and Mr. Beadnell on a subsequent page (p. 346).] 
“ The Spotted Hysena is more ferocious than is generally imagined, and not infrequently 
one sees men with faces mutilated when children from the attacks of these brutes. 
Since I have been here two children have been carried oif at Tokar.”—W. E. de W. 
