THE KLIPDAS. 683 



digging. Several dozens of them may be seen sitting on the great stones 

 at the mouth of caves, warming themselves in the sun, or enjoying the 

 freshness of the summer evening. They do not stand upright upon 

 their feet, but steal along as in fear, their belly being very close to the 

 ground, advancing a few steps at a time, and then pausing." 



This species is found plentifully on Mount Lebanon, and is sometimes 

 called the Syrian Hyrax. The Arabs style it " Israel's Sheep," probably 

 from its frequenting the rocks of Horeb and Mount Sinai, where the 

 children of Israel made their forty years' wandering. It is known in 

 Hebrew by the name Saphan, and is the animal erroneously called in the 

 English version of the Bible the " coney." 



There is no foundation for the species Hyrax Hudsonicus which was 

 described by Pennant from a specimen in a museum. 



THE KLIPDAS. 



The Klipdas, Hyrax capcnsis (Plate LII) is sometimes called the 

 Rock Badger. " Kolbe, its first discoverer, and Buffon mention it as a 

 Marmot. Blumenbach left it with the Rodentia. It is not much larger 

 than a hare ; the make is clumsy, rather long, low on the legs, with a 

 thick head terminated by an obtuse muzzle. The fur is uniformly gray- 

 ish-brown, with the inside of the ears white, and sometimes a blackish 

 band is found on the back. In captivity these creatures soon become 

 tamed, and are easily attached to their keeper. They are active and 

 cleanly, and feed exclusively on vegetable substances, and are said to pre- 

 pare a kind of nest or bed of dried leaves, grasses, and the like, in the 

 cavities in which they reside. 



THE TREE DAMAN. 



The Tree Daman, Hyrax arborcus, is found in many of the forests of 

 South Africa, and dwells in the hollows of decayed trees. It rather 

 exceeds the size of the Klipdas, but resembles it in form, and in its man- 

 ner of moving and sitting. In color it is a tawny-red, mottled with 

 black upon the back, but the fur beneath is of a uniform dull white. 

 The reddish color arises from the tips of most of the hairs being of that 

 hue ; the black variegations depend on a scanty intermixture of long 



