a_ in Central India; _Kirba_ and _Kat-Kirba_, Canarese;
_Korna-gandu_, Telegu.

HABITAT.--All over India; but as far as I can gather not in Burmah
nor in Ceylon; it is not mentioned in Blyth's and Kellaart's
catalogues. It is also found in Northern Africa and throughout Asia
Minor and Persia; it is common in Palestine.

[Illustration: _Hyaena striata_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Pale yellowish-grey, with transverse tawny or
blackish bands which encircle the body, and extend downwards on to
the legs. The neck and back are maned.

SIZE.--Head and body, 3-1/2 feet; tail, about 1-1/2 feet.

This repulsive and cowardly creature is yet a useful beast in its
way. Living almost exclusively on carrion, it is an excellent
scavenger. Most wild animals are too active for it, but it feeds on
the remains left by the larger felines, and such creatures as die
of disease, and can, on a pinch, starve for a considerable time. The
African spotted hyaena is said to commit great havoc in the
sheep-fold. The Indian one is very destructive to dogs, and
constantly carries off pariahs from the outskirts of villages. The
natives declare that the hyaena tempts the dogs out by its unearthly
cries, and then falls upon them. Dr. Jerdon relates a story of a small
dog belonging to an officer of the 33rd M. N. I. (the regiment he
was with when I first knew him) being carried off by a hyaena whose
den was known. Some of the sepoys went after it, entered the cave,
killed the hyaena, and recovered the dog alive, and with but little
damage done to it.

The hyaena is of a timorous nature, seldom, if ever, showing fight.
Two of them nearly ran over me once as I was squatting on a deer run
waiting for sambar, which were being beaten out of a hill. I flung
my hat in the face of the leading one, on which both turned tail and
fled. The Arabs have a proverb, "As cowardly as a hyaena."

The _Cryptoprocta ferox_ is not an inhabitant of India, being found
only in the interior of Madagascar. The genus contains only one
species, a most savage little animal; it is the most perfect link
between the cats and the civets, having retractile claws, one more
premolar in each jaw; five toes, and semi-plantigrade feet. It should
properly come before the hyaenas, to which the next in order is the
South African Aard-wolf (_Proteles Lalandii_), which forms the
connection between the hyaena and the civet, though more resembling
the former. It is placed in a family by itself, which con