290 HTRACID^. 



large, the first upper one being compressed as in H. capensis ; but 

 they are all smaller, compared with the size of the skull, and are 

 placed in a straighter line, than they are in the skulls of the other 

 species named, and the inner sides of them are more nearly parallel, so 

 that the palate is scarcely -wider in the middle of the series of grinders 

 than it is at the front and hinder ends of them. Lower jaw dilated 

 behind. The bladebone elongate trigonal like that of Hyrax. 



Mr. Gerrard, in his ' Catalogue of Bones of Mammalia in the 

 British Museum,' pointed out that there is a distinction in the ske- 

 leton between this species and H. capensis. He states that the spe- 

 cimen 724 a, in his Catalogue, " has twenty-two pairs of ribs, the 

 first of which are articulated to the last cervical vertebra, and five 

 sternal bones," the H. capensis, 724 b, in the same collection having 

 only twenty-one pairs of ribs and seven sternal bones. (See Cat. 

 Bones, p. 283.) 



It is well worthy of observation that all these osteological charac- 

 ters exist in two species scarcely to be distinguished by their skins. 

 The skull of Euhyrax ahi/ssinicus is intermediate between Hyrax and 

 Dendrohyrax, but more aUied to Hyrax. 



Euhyrax abyssinicus. 



Fur blackish, minutely pmictulated with white, with a black 

 dorsal spot. 



Hyrax habessynicus, Hemp. ^ Ehrenh. Si/ni. Phys. (specific charac- 

 ters). 



Hyi'ax abyssinicus, Giehel, Mam. p. 213. 



Hyrax syriacus, Hemp. S,- Ehrenb. Symb. Phys. t. 2 (hinder figures 

 only). 



Euhyrax abyssinicus, Gray, Ann. Sf May. N. H. i. p. 47, 



Hah. Abyssinia, Ankober, Dec. 1847 (male and female) ; called 

 " Ashkoko " (Capt. Cormuallis Harris). B.M. 



Ehrenberg describes the interparietal of H. capensis as trigonal, 

 and of H. habessiniciis as semiorbicular, and the space between the 

 canine and grinders of H. habessinicus as being longer than in H. 

 capensis ; he also says that the fur of H. capensis is soft, and of H. 

 hahessinicus more rigid ; but I cannot discover any appreciable dif- 

 ference in this respect between the Cape and the Abyssinian species. 



The skuU of the adult Euhyrax abyssinicus, from the Abyssinian 

 skin, is larger than that of any species oi Hyrax, and nearly as large 

 as that of Dendrohyrax dorsalis ; it is narrow, and the smooth space 

 on the crown is linear, of nearly equal width from a line on a level 

 with the front of the condyles. 



The second skull (from the skeleton 'No. 724 a) which I believe to 

 belong to this species has decayed grinders, having been kept in 

 confinement. It is very like the type specimen, but it is rather 

 shorter, and the hinder part of the crown or sagittal crest is nar- 

 rower. This skuU is exceedingly like the skuU figured with its ske- 

 leton under the name o{ Hyrax syriacus by M. de Blainville (Oste'o- 

 graph. t. 1 & 2). It differs from the figure a little in the form of 



