as in the lion and tiger tribe. The teeth
which serve as bone-crackers are three in
number, on each side of both jaws,
progressively increasing in size as they are placed
more backwards, and nearer to the muscles
that work them. Their crowns are in the
form of low and strong cones, covered by a
smooth enamel, hard enough to strike fire
with steel, and belted at the base with a
more or less complete ridge of the same
material. This serves to defend the gum from
splinters broken off as the bone is cracked,
and no better model could be taken for a
hammer to break stones on the road, than
one of those bone-breaking teeth of the hyæna.

As the hungry carnivore does by no means
disdain good flesh, when a sated lion has left
enough of it on the carcase of a buffalo, after
feasting on the prime parts of its prey; the
hyæna is provided, like the king of beasts,
with what are called flesh-teeth, or carnassials.
These are four in number, one on each side of
both jaws, with crowns shaped like scissor-blades,
the one above gliding obliquely upon
the one below, so that they reciprocally
maintain by their mode of action a sharp
edge for neatly cutting across the fibres
of rigid muscles. Behind each flesh-tooth of
the upper jaw, is placed a small, low, round,
and flat grinder, which completes the
so-called dental system of the hyaena. The use
of this tubercular tooth is not very obvious;
but, as it is situated nearest the gullet, it may
give the last squeeze to a tough morsel, or an
additional crack to a piece of bone, before the
one or the other is bolted.

The series of teeth altogether resemble
those of the lion more than those of the dog.
If the first and smallest of the conical
bone-crushers were removed from both jaws the
teeth would be the same, both in number and
kind, with those of the feline genus, only
modified in their shape and proportions to
serve the purposes of a brute that feeds on
the remnants of the dead carcase of the prey
which the more noble destructive has slain
and satiated its appetite upon. In this
respect the lion may be compared to the
eagle; the hyæna to the vulture. Like the
ignoble bird of prey, there is much in the
outward form of the hycena that contrasts
unfavourably with the well-finished frame of
the bolder pursuer and assailant of living
animals. The neck and fore-quarters of the
hyæna have a thickness and strength that
match the head; but the hind-quarters are
low, and the hind legs bent, crouching, and
knock-knee'd, causing the pace, even when
rapid, to be of a shuffling or dragging
character. The toes are four in number on each
foot; that which supports the " dew-claw " in
the dog, and the short upper innermost claw
in the cat and its kind, being wanting in the
hyæna. The claws of the four toes that are
retained are strong, blunt, and non-retractile.
The ears are large and carried erect; a coarse
mane runs down the spine; the general
colour of the beast of the kind called
"crocuta " is yellowish-brown, the spots that
distinguish him being numerous and of a
deeper brown tint.

The hyænas, like the vultures and other
winged scavengers, fulfil an important sanitary
mission in the warm latitudes where
they most abound. They clear away the
putrescent remains of the carcases of the
large quadrupeds which higher organised
carnivora have killed and left half devoured;
they follow the Caffres and Hottentots to
their battle-fields and gorge on the slain. It
may be charitable to suppose that the
assiduous labours of hungry hyænas may have
contributed to cause the mysterious
disappearance of the bodies of our sable enemies,
slain, according to bulletins, in praiseworthy
numbers, during recent and ever-recurring
conflicts at the Cape. It is certain that the
hyænas ransack the native villages in quest
of offal, and often disinter the corpse from the
too shallow or ill-protected grave.

But the dead and the débris of slain animals
do not form the exclusive food of the hyænas,
assuredly not of the stronger and spotted
species of South Africa. They are the most
pestilent assailers and destroyers of the
farmer's stock: the numbers, and stealth,
or stupid venturesomeness of these hungry
nocturnal hyænas rendering them much more
destructive, if less formidable individually,
than the lion itself. At Kanha, writes Major
Denham, the hyænas are " everywhere in
legions, and grew now so extremely ravenous
that a good large village, where I sometimes
procured a draught of sour milk on my duck-
shooting excursions had been attacked the
night before my last visit, and the town
absolutely carried by storm, notwithstanding
defences of nearly six feet high of branches of
the prickly trilloh; and two donkeys, whose
flesh these animals are particularly fond of,
carried off in spite of the efforts of the people."
Man himself the hyæna dares not openly
attack; though, when driven hard in self-
defence, it will turn furiously even upon that
assailant. A sleeping adult or child,
however, if exposed to the prowling, hungry herd,
is almost sure to fall their victim. It would
seem, also, that the spotted hyæna, which has
once in this way tasted human flesh, retains
a dangerous liking for it.

Steedman, in his Wanderings and Adventures
in the Interior of Southern Africa,
adduces the following evidence to that effect,
which he obtained from Mr. Shepstone, an
experienced settler:—" To show clearly the
preference of the hyæna for human flesh, it
will be necessary to notice that, when the
Mambookies (a race of Hottentots) build
their houses, which are in form like
beehives, and tolerably large—often eighteen or
twenty feet in diameter—the floor is raised at
the higher or back part of the house until
within three or four feet of the front, where
it suddenly terminates, leaving an area from