What animal with only four extant species was the name borne by four ships of the Royal Navy
HMS Hyaena Four ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS "Hyaena" (or HMS "Hyæna"), after the Hyena, a family of carnivorous mammals. Two others were planned but either commissioned under another name or cancelled.
Cormorant-class gunvessel The Cormorant"-class gunvessels (sometimes known as Eclipse"-class gunvessels) were a class of 4-gun first-class gunvessels built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s. They were somewhat unsuccessful; intended for shore bombardment in shallow water, they exceeded their design draft by 50%. Seven of the 13 ships ordered were suspended, with 3 finished or converted as survey ships and the other 4 cancelled. "Racehorse" was wrecked after only 4 years, and those ships that were completed as planned had short operational lives, in some cases less than 10 years. The survey vessels ("Myrmidon", "Sylvia" and "Nassau") lasted longest, with the last ship of the class, "Sylvia", being broken up in 1890.