The habits of Hyænas 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 Hyæna 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 out of sight with their dragging, shuffling gait. I cannot say that they disturbed the stillness of the night, because a tropical night never is still; but their cry used suddenly to come upon our ears, and I know not why, always seemed to be close to us. The roar of a leopard or lion is most grand, however terrific; but what is called the laugh of the hyæna, is just like the triumphant exultation of a fierce madman, when he reaches his long-sought victim. All the natives of the Gold Coast bear witness to the powers of mimicry evinced by the hyæna; they say that he hides himself in the jungle, and imitates the cries of other beasts till he allures them to his side, when he falls upon and devours them. A gentleman, who long commanded a fortress on the Gold Coast, told me the following story, which confirms the above assertion:--"Some women from the neighbouring village were accustomed to pass the walls of the fort to fetch water after sunset, at the dinner hour of this officer, and made so much noise, that they disturbed him, so he ordered them to take another path. The next evening the noise recurred, and the same order was repeated the next morning; on which the women protested they had gone quite another way. On the third evening, when the laughing and talking were apparently recommencing, a sergeant sallied forth to bring the delinquents into the fort; but to his surprise there were only three hyænas to be seen, whose imitation of human sounds had deceived all those who had heard them on the preceding occasions."