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.