Note 1798 — BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.

Aristotle, De Gener. Anim. B. iii. c. 6, and Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 32, accounts for the vulgar error, by stating that the hyæna has a peculiar structure of the parts about the anus, which might, to an unpractised eye, give the idea, that it possesses the generative organs of both sexes. Ælian, Anim. Nat. B. i. c. 25, and Oppian, Cyneget. B. iii. c. 289, have adopted this erroneous opinion. What is said respecting the hyæna, in the remaining part of this Chapter, is mostly without foundation.—B.