THE 



THE CONEY, {H 



ALIST. 



STRIACVS) 



BY JOHH LONGMUIRj ESQ., JUN. 



0\E of the most singular quadrupeds, in a scientific point of view,^with 

 which, we are acquainted, is the Coney of Scripture, alias the Daman, and 

 the Hyrax St/riacus of naturalists. In its general appearance, colour, and 

 size, it so closely resembles a Rabbit, that several of our older naturalists 

 placed it in the order Glires, (Bodentia, Cuv.,) along with these animals. 

 Pallas, who was perhaps the first naturalist that anatomically examined any of 

 the species of the genus Hi/rax, saw some individuals alive at Amsterdam, but 

 obtained his description from a specimen, preserved in spirits, of a very closely 

 allied species, the Cape Hyrax, (IT. Capensis;) but the value of the specimen 

 obtained by Pallas was very greatly diminished by its not possessing two parts, 

 which, although always important, were especially so in this case, namely, the 

 bead and feet. 



The illustrious Baron Cuvier was the first to assign to it its proper place, 

 and, according to him, no quadruped could exhibit, in a more decisive manner, 

 the utility and importance of comparative anatomy; for, by a careful examination 

 of its skeleton, he has shown that it is in reality a miniature Rhinoceros, as, 

 although altogether unlike that ungainly animal in general appearance, it agrees 

 with it to a remarkable extent in the internal structure, in the skeleton, and in 

 the dentition. The Prince C. L. Bonaparte, in his arrangement of the class 

 Mammalia, places it in a family immediately after that of the Rhinocerotidce, 

 which he calls Hyracidoe. In this family there are five or six species, the 

 principal of which are the Hyrax, or Klip-das, pre-eminently so called, {H. 

 Capensis',) and the FI. arhoreus of Western Africa, which has obtained its name 

 from its habit of climbing trees. Mr. Swainson, in his ^'Classification of 

 Quadrupeds," considers it to be the Gliriform type, (or representative of the 

 order to which the Rabbits, etc., belong,) of the Pachydermata, on the sole 

 authority of what M. Cuvier states regarding the construction of its feet. 



The wide space which intervenes, in our modern fauna, between the 

 Rhinoceros and the Hyrax, is filled up by fossil species, such as the Anthra- 

 cotherium, Merycopotamua, and Chceropotamus, which last, according to Pro- 

 fessor Owen, "was the earliest form of the Hog'; tribe introduced upon our 

 planet." It seems to have resembled the Peccary, {Dicotyles torquatus,) in 

 form, but was about one-third larger. Its remains, which have been discovered 



VOL. IV. B 



