SKELETON OF HYÆNA.
In speaking of the Cat family, we mentioned that the characters of the floor of the skull, and particularly of the swollen, bulb-like bulla tympani, were of great importance in determining the position of an animal in the series. Now this bulla in the Hyæna is large and rounded, as in Cats, but differs in the fact that it is not divided by a bony partition into two compartments. The external opening of the cavity, too, is quite flush with its outer wall, and the clamp of bone (see figures on [pp. 11] and [79]) is quite close to its hinder wall.
In these characters, as well as in certain matters of internal structure, such as the presence of a small cæcum, or “blind-gut,” the Hyænas approach to the Cats and Civets, being connected with the latter group by the curious Aard-Wolf. In other respects they approach the Dog family, their nearest ally in that group being the Cape Hunting Dog.[63]
THE SPOTTED HYÆNA.[64]
This species exists over the whole of Africa south of the Sahara, a portion of the continent which differs in a remarkable manner in its animal productions from the northern part; so much so that in a division of the world into regions for the purposes of studying the geographical distribution of animals, the north of Africa is united with Europe, while its ultra-Saharal portion is formed into a distinct region. Over this Ethiopian region, then, the Spotted Hyæna ranges, extending from Abyssinia and the Soudan in the north, where it meets with its striped brother, to Cape Colony, where it exists along with the curious Aard-Wolf. It is known as the “Wolf,” or “Tiger-Wolf,” by the Cape colonists, who, it seems, have a fancy for giving animals wrong names. We have seen already that the Leopard is with them a “Tiger.”
The skin is of a yellowish-brown ground tint, irregularly blotched with circular black spots. On the back of the neck and on the withers it has a quantity of long stiff hairs, forming a kind of reversed mane. The fur is coarse and bristly, its character adding greatly to the animal’s singularly unattractive appearance. The height at the shoulder is about two feet six or eight inches, the extreme length five feet ten inches, of which length the tail takes up some sixteen inches.
Like some other beasts of a similarly mean nature, the Spotted Hyæna prefers not to do his own killing, but likes better to live as a sort of humble messmate on those better provided than himself with the courage requisite to good hunters. When he does cater for himself, instead of subsisting on the leavings of his betters, he always makes his attack in a cowardly way, and trusts rather to stratagem than to any of the higher qualities of a sportsman. Dr. Livingstone says:—“In the evening of our second day at Serotli, a Hyæna appearing suddenly among the grass, succeeded in raising a panic among our cattle. This false mode of attack is the plan which this cowardly animal always adopts. His courage resembles closely that of a Turkey-cock. He will bite if an animal is running away; but if the animal stand still, so does he.”
TEETH OF SPOTTED HYÆNA.