*?j5: which feems to correfpond tolerably well with the defcriptions we have o f that animal. The teeth and Feet were either loft from off the ikin, or elfe mutilated 5 however, to defcribe it as accurately as I can, it was five feet in length and two in breadth, and the legs, to conclude from what was left, were above a foot long. The tail was fifteen inches long, and tolerably eredt; from the tip o f the tlofe to the eyes it meafured fix inches, and from the eyes to the ears five ; the ears were fix inches long, a little rounded at the tip, but the exterior parts of them were moftly bare. The noie was peaked; the head covered with fhdrt hair, and o f an afli- colour all over; while, on the other hand, the hair on the reft of the body was thick, harih, and rough; on the upper part o f the back the hairs were above a foot long, ef- pecially near the tail; on the tail itfelf they were fix inches in length, while on the fides and belly they were not above four or five. The whilkers were very ftiff and harih, ibme o f them being thrice the thicknefs o f thofe on the breaft, and five inches in length. A number o f ftiff and ftrait hairs, three or four inches long, compofed the eye-brows. The eyes were at the diftance of two inches afunder; the colour of the ipace between them, as well as on the upper part of the back and tail, was dark brown, as likewife on the legs and thighs; but on the fides and under the belly it was 'moufe-black. It was with difficulty that fome dark ftripes could be traced, running from the back-bone down to the fides. So that Mr. Pe n n a n t ’s defcription o f the byana canina, or the canis hyaena o f L innaeus, correfponds tolerably well, well, as to the fize o f the animal and the nature o f ‘77?- the hair, with the ikin I brought with me, and have juft \Jv>j now defcribed, the fmall differences there may be in the colour being o f no great importance : befides, I have another very good reafon for believing, that one fpecies o f the animal called wolves at the Cape, is the byana canina, fo well defcribed by Mr. P e n n a n t ; and this is, that a farmer living near Bott R ivier, offered to lay me a confider- able wager, that he could ffiew me wolves that were hermaphrodites. For this purpofe he intended to lay a poi- foned bait for Them, compofed of an extradt o f an herb, which he bought of fomebody that lived a great way up the country; however, I did not accept the wager, partly as I had not time to wait for the determination of it, and partly becaufe I was afraid o f getting into fome dif- agreeable difpute about the decifion o f i t ; as perhaps this animal, in like manner as I had feen before in the cafe o f the viverra genetta and other creatures, might .have a muik-bag, or follicle, in that part, which might be mif- taken for the female organs o f generation. I did not then recolledt, that Mr. Pennant had remarked an aperture above the anus in the female of the canis by ana; but that the tiger-wolf had nothing of the kind, I could observe in the female one that was kept alive at the Cape. It is this aperture, as I imagine, that in former times gave room for the aflertion, that the hyaena was ufed to change its fex. Perhaps, in like manner, it will be found, that our forefathers were not entirely without foundation in the accounts they gave (though they were certainly carried-too far) of
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