Not long after it was stumbled upon by the quarrymen Dr William Buckland
went down to Kirkdale, and although some careless digging had taken place
in the outer part of the cave before his arrival, he was able to make a
most careful and exhaustive examination of the undisturbed portions,
giving the results of his work in a paper read before the Royal Society in
1822.[1] Besides the remains of many hyænas there were teeth or bones of
such large animals as the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse,
tiger, bear, urus (Bos primi-genius) an unknown animal of the size of a
wolf, and three species of deer. The smaller animals included the rabbit,
water-rat, mouse, raven, pigeon, lark and a small type of duck. Everything
was broken into small pieces so that no single skull was found entire and
it was, of course, impossible to obtain anything like a complete skeleton.
From the fact that the bones of the hyænas themselves had suffered the
same treatment as the rest we may infer that these ferocious lovers of
putrid flesh were in the habit of devouring those of their own species
that died a natural death, or that possibly under pressure of hunger were
inclined to kill and eat the weak or diseased members of the pack. From
other evidences in the cave it is plain that its occupants were extremely
fond of bones after the fashion of the South African hyæna.

[Footnote 1: Buckland, The Rev. Wm. "Account of an assemblage of fossil
teeth and bones ... at Kirkdale."]

[Illustration: Jaws of Kirkdale (above) and Modern Hyæna (below). The
Kirkdale Hyænas were evidently much more powerful than the modern ones.]

Although the existing species have jaws of huge strength and these
prehistoric hyænas were probably stronger still, it is quite improbable
that they ever attacked such large animals as elephants; and the fact that
the teeth found in the cave were of very young specimens seems to suggest