Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/110

 102 HYBRID genitors of the mastiff races. The head is short and truncated, the mouth broad, the teeth strong and dog-like ; the ears erect and large ; neck long, body short, the limbs slender and highest before ; tail short, hanging down, and inflexible ; four toes on all tlie feet ; pupils round ; mammae eight or ten. They hunt in packs, being swift, active, hardy, with excel- lent scent and acute sight ; they do not bur- row. They ar'e found in Africa south of the great desert, and in Arabia, and as far as the Indus in Asia. The hunting hyaena (lycaon venaticus, Burch.) of the Cape is about as tall as a large greyhound, with long legs; the color is ochrey, white on the breast, with spots of the same edged with black on the neck, shoulders, loins, and croup, with wavy black streaks on the sides; the muzzle and cheeks black, the color passing up on the nape and down on the throat. It hunts in packs both by day and night, frequently destroying sheep, and some- times surprising cattle, biting off their tails ; it Hunting Hvii-na (Lycaon venaticus). is considered untamable. The painted hyoena (L. pictus, Temm.) is by many thought to be a mere variety of the last ; it is about 3 ft. long, the tail 1 ft. more, and If ft. high at the shoul- ders ; the colors are much the same as in the preceding animal ; it hunts also in packs, sur- prising antelopes, and attacking when hard pressed for food cattle and even man ; Rilppell says it looks much less like a hyeena and more like a dog than the L. venaticus. In anterior geological epochs the hyasnas were not confined to tropical Africa and Asia, nor to the old world. They appeared in Europe toward the end of the tertiary age, but were most numer- ous during the diluvial period, and were found in England, Belgium, and Germany ; there were about half a dozen species, numerous in individuals, and of a size sometimes superior to the living animal. In the Kirkdale and other caverns of Europe three species are found, of which the best known is the H. spelaa (Goldf.). In Asia they were numerous in the Himalaya region, of which the most remarkable is the H. Smalemis (Cautl. and Falc.). In the caverns of Brazil Lund has found abundant remains of a hysena which he calls H. neogcea, mixed with the bones of rodents, peccaries, megalonyx, and other American types, seeming to show that the geographical distribution of animals in the modern fauna? is in no way connected with their ancient distribution. The bones of the caverns bear unmistakable marks of the teeth of hyaenas, even if the remains of the latter did not prove their existence; and this animal seems to have been the principal consumer of the great proboscidians and ruminants of the diluvial age. IM Id. I. the name of several cities of ancient Sicily, the most considerable of which were the following. I. Hybla Major, or 3Iagna, situated on the southern declivity of Mt. Etna, near the river Symrethus. It was founded by the Siculi, and was one of those which Ducetius, a chief of that people, sought to unite into a confeder- acy against the Greeks and Carthaginians. In the time of Cicero Hybla Major was an opu- lent municipium, but in that of Pausanias it was a poor decayed place. Its site was prob- ably at Paterno, where an altar has been dis- covered dedicated to Venus Victrix Hyblensis. II. Hybla Minor, which stood so near Megara on the E. coast, N. of Syracuse, that the two cities were often confounded, was likewise of Siculic origin. It was chiefly celebrated for the honey produced in its vicinity. HYBRID (Gr. i>pptf), an animal or plant pro- duced by the sexual union of individuals be- longing to two different species. As a rule, in nature sexual union takes place only be- tween individuals of the same species, and the offspring accordingly presents the specific char- acters common to both its parents. It is in this way that the species is indefinitely main- tained, with its distinctive characters, by the constant production of new individuals similar in appearance to the old and endowed with similar powers of reproduction. But union between a male and a female of different spe- cies, when fertile, produces an offspring which does not precisely resemble either of its pa- rents, but presents a mixture in nearly equal proportions of their separate characters. Thus a mule, which is the most commonly known example of a hybrid, is neither a horse nor an ass, but something intermediate between the two, and is without the complete distinctive marks of any recognized animal species. One of the most important questions relating to hybridity is that of the possible fertility of sexual union between different species, and that of hybrids of the same or different kinds between themselves. In nature, the occur- rence of hybridity is extremely rare. This may be due to the more or less complete in- aptitude of the male and female generative products to unite with each other in such a way as to produce a fertile result. Thus the germ and pollen of different flowers, or the