50 SKETCH OF THE HISTOET OF MAMMAJ.IA. 



formidable incisors, but are soon rendered tame and 

 familiar. Cuvier and many naturalists have hesitated as 

 to the distinctness of the Syrian and the Cape hyrax. 

 They are, as we think, undoubtedly different, and the 

 Syrian species may be distinguished by the presence of 

 long bristle-like, but slender, black hairs, dispersed not 

 very thinly over its body, and considerably exceeding 

 the fur : such at least was the case with the specimen 

 which we examined ; while in the numerous specimens 

 from the Cape, of all ages, in the museum of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society, nothing of the kind is to be perceived. 

 Bruce, indeed, noticed this peculiarity, and he considered 

 the Amharic name Ashkoko " as derived from the sin- 

 gularity of those long herinaceous hairs which, like small 

 thorns, grow about his back, and which in Amhara are 

 called Ashok." 



A fossil form closely allied to the hyrax, the skull 

 of which has been discovered in the clay near Heme Bay, 

 has been described by Professor Owen. 



Genus Tapirus. 



This genus comprehends, as far as known, only three 

 species, of which two are natives of South America, the 

 other of Sumatra and Malacca. 



The geographical distribution of the existing species 

 of pachydermatous animals is so partial, that we are sur- 

 prised to find the islands of Sumatra and the peninsula 

 of Malacca dividing with South America this limited 

 genus between them. America, compared with Asia 

 and Africa, is deficient in living forms of the Pachyder- 

 mata ; two only are indigenous to that vast continent, 

 viz. the peccary and tapir; and, reasoning from analogy, 

 we should not expect to find either of these forms in any 

 portion of the Old World, and more especially in the 

 islands of the Indian Archipelago. The great mass of 

 the Pachydermata are peculiar to the warmer regions of 

 Asia and the continent of Africa: and many genera, as 

 Eleplias, Rhinoceros, Sus, and Equus, give species to 

 each, but not to America : so that the existence of cog- 



