THE LIVING WORLD. 
645 
prey. It is often domesticated and is found specially useful in hunting the 
wild boar. 
The Cape Hyena, or Brown Hyena (. Hycena brunni , or brunnea ), is 
named from its habitat or from the color of its hair, which is long, running 
backward from the head. Around 
the cheeks and chin the hair is white 
or gray, producing the effect of very 
long side-whiskers. 
The Spotted Hyena, or Tiger- 
wolf ( Crocuta maculata) , is larger and 
more dangerous. It utters a cry which 
has given it the name of the laughing 
hyena , and when engaged in uttering 
this crazy sound it dances about and 
contorts itself. It has been trapped 
so often that a piece of rope causes 
paroxysms of fear. Some of these 
creatures have learned how to steal 
small children, which they prefer to 
other animal food. Its habitat is 
South Africa. Its taste for human 
flesh is supposed to have been culti¬ 
vated by the heathen custom of 
exposing to beasts of prey the dead bodies of relatives. The hyena adds to 
its other disabilities as a pet a most nauseating odor. It is stated upon reason¬ 
able authority that the lion will chastise the hyena by biting off one or 
more of its legs. 
The Striped Hyena ( Hycena stri¬ 
ata) is a striped creature whose size and 
ferocity make him a dreaded neighbor 
by the inhabitants of the Cape of Good 
Hope. The hyena family is not in any 
wise attractive, and possibly we shall 
look for no greater cause for our repul¬ 
sion than to the picture of striped hyenas 
snarling and quarrelling over a deserted 
camel. In color it is a grayish-brown 
striped with black. Like the rest of 
its family it is very cowardly, but this 
does not prevent its paying nightly visits 
to the village cemeteries and unearthing 
the bodies for a ghoulish feast. 
The spotted hyena tears off the ud- 
SPOTTED HYENA {H. CrOCutd). ^ q{ ^ CQW which ^ attackS) and , 
secure of having inflicted a mortal wound, postpones till the close of the day’s 
hunting any feasting upon the rest of the animal. Architecture in southern 
Africa is yet in a somewhat primitive condition, and no one knows it better 
than the spotted hyena. Hence it not unfrequently occurs that he comes 
like a perverted Santa Claus through the roof, not to fill the children’s stock- 
