He is sufficiently voracious, but lives chiefly on carrion, and will not dare attack living creatures of half his own strength.

He preys only on the smallest quadrupeds, and with all his voracity he is an arrant poltroon.

A child of ten years will easily put him to flight.
A second species is the hyena which so much annoyed the celebrated Bruce while travelling in Abyssinia, and may be appropriately named "Bruce's hyena." This is also a _striped_ hyena, and nearly all naturalists have set him down as of the same species with the _Hyena vulgaris_.
Excepting the "stripes," there is no resemblance whatever between the two species; and even these are differently arranged, while the ground colour also differs.
Bruce's hyena is nearly twice the size of the common kind--with twice his strength, courage, and ferocity.

The former will attack not only large quadrupeds, but man himself,--will enter houses by night, even villages, and carry off domestic animals and children.
Incredible as these statements may appear, about their truth there can be no doubt; such occurrences are by no means rare.
This hyena has the reputation of entering graveyards, and disinterring the dead bodies to feed upon them.

Some naturalists have denied this.
For what reason?
It is well-known that in many parts of Africa, the dead are not interred, but thrown out on the plains.