, which is pre-eminently African, although he is found
in the East; having, according to the opinion of some naturalists,
migrated thither in the wake of caravans. He has a ferocious,
ill-natured look, yet the first impression made by his appearance can
only be expressed by the word "sneaking." He is of a tawny colour, more
or less dusky till it approaches black, and is generally spotted, or
striped. He has a mane continued all along the spine; his ears are long
and erect; he is digitigrade, his claws are strong, and not retractile;
he possesses a gland which sends forth a disagreeable odour, and his
eyes have a pupil which is contracted at the top, and round at the
bottom, which gives them a singular expression.

The great peculiarity of form in the Hyaena is the disproportionate
smallness of his hind quarters; besides which, the vertebrae of his neck
very often become stiffened, in consequence of the strain put upon them
by the powerful muscles of that part, and of the jaws. So firm is the
hold which they take, that nothing will make them leave what they have
once seized. They devour bones as well as muscles, rejecting only hoofs,
horns, and skull; and this power must have existed in former ages, for
in the caves which they inhabited, and into which they dragged their
prey, their fossil remains are found with those of gigantic mastodons,
etc., on which their teeth had made impression. This stiffness of the
neck has caused many to imagine that it was composed of one joint only,
and led the Arabs to make Hyaenas the symbols of obstinacy.

The habits of Hyaenas accord with their outward appearance; they are
nature's scavengers, and feed on everything, being, with the jackal and
Genet cat, the especial robbers of the cemetery. Many are the stories
told of their cruel depredations, such as their stealing into the kraals
of the Caffres and Hottentots, and abstracting the sleeping infants from
under the kaross of its mother, who only becomes conscious of her loss
when she hears the cries of the victim. Major Denham, in his travels,
tells us of a village stormed by them at night, when they carried off
asses and other animals.

My own impressions of the Hyaena are, that he is a timid, cowardly
animal. I always found them shun my approach; and my uncle has told me,
that when he often encountered them during his command of the outpost of
Tantum Querry, on the leeward coast of Africa, they invariably turned
from him, and slunk