MAMMALIA. 637 



Bcsclir. van eene soort van Afrikaansch Basterd-mormeldler, Amsterd. 1761, 

 with col. fig., ScHiNZ MonograpJiien der Sduyth. 6tes Heft, 1845, Tab. i, 

 upper fig. ; the daman, KlipdacJis ; a little animal of the size of a rabbit, 

 eatable, according to Kolbe very tasty. It lives in mountainous districts 

 in the neighbourhood of the Gape of Good Hope (as on Table-mount) and 

 also in Abyssinia, Hyrax habessinicus Ehrenb. (See such a specimen 

 figured in Geoffr. St.-Hilaire et F. Cuvier Mammif. Livrais. 54.) In 

 Syria also a species has been found on the mountains near the Red Sea, 

 Hyrax Syriaeus Schreb. Sdugth. Tab. 140 c. (and Hyr. ruficeps Ehrenb. 

 Synib.), perhaps the ^aphan of the Old Testament. Another species from 

 South Africa lives in woods, Hyrax arhoreus Smith, Linn. Trans, xv. 2, 

 pp. 468 — 470; it has longer hair and a white spot on the back; Peters 

 found this in Mosambique also to the 15° S. L. A fourth species, which lives 

 in hollow trees, and is said to climb to the tops of the trees to seek their 

 fruits, is Hyrax sylveslris Temm., from the coast of Guinea. It has only six 

 molars on each side in both jaws. LiNNiEDS {^yst. nat. 6d. 12, Tom. iii. 

 Append, p. 223) named this genus Cavia, a name however which was 

 afterwards given to American rodents. Hermann distinguished this genus 

 by the name of Hyrax (Tab. Affinit. Animal. Argentorati, 1783, 4to, 

 p. 115), which is commonly adopted. These animals were placed at first 

 amongst the rodents, with which they have undoubtedly some agreement. 

 Afterwards Wiedemann {Arch. f. Zool. u. Zoot. iii. t8o2, s. 42—51), and 

 especially CuviER, asserted, on good grounds, that this genus belongs to 

 the Pachyderms ; the molar teeth have entirely the same form as those of 

 Rhinoceros (Ann. du Mus. iii. pp. 171, 182). The malar bone forms behind 

 the orbit a more perfect ring than in any other genus of this order; in the 

 New Guinea species the ring is even perfectly closed by its joining the 

 frontal bone. Compare on this genus also H. Kaulla Monographia 

 Hyracis, Stuttgardiae, 1830, 4to, 



Family XIII. Tapirina, Incisors, canines, and molars in 

 both jaws. Anterior feet tridactylous or tetradactjlous, posterior 

 tridactylous. 



Tapirus Briss., Illig., Cuv. {Tajnr Gmel. Hydrochoerus 



BoDD. ^) Incisors ^ , the two upper and outer conical, resembling 



C (\ 7 7 



canines ; molar teeth r> _r> oi* a_a ' separate by a void interval 



from the canines, crown with two exsert, transverse lines. Anterior 

 feet tetradactylous, posterior tridactylous. Nose produced into a 



1 Boddaebt Blench, animal, p. i6r. In the twelfth edition of the Syst. natures 

 the Tapir is not noticed ; in the tenth LlNN^US placed this animal under the name of 

 Hippopotamus terrestris. Erxleben had already named it {Syst. regni anim-. 1777) 

 before Boddaert Hydrochoerus, but united with it under the same name the Capibara, 

 a large rodent; see below. 



