250 MAMMALS. ■ 



Is this really so ? It is a question, perhaps, rather of apprehension or idiosyncracy than of fact ; 

 and mine leads me, so far from believing, to dissent from the jjroposition that truth is told by Nature 

 in whisj^ers. I think she speaks clearest when she speaks loudest : the truest solution is usually the 

 most obvious, the most common-place, and the least far-fetched. It is a trite saying, that all great 

 discoveries are characterised by their simplicity : as with Columbus and his egg, we stand amazed 

 that we never thought of them before ; they were so obvious ; they lay at our feet, whilst we were 

 peering through telescopes ; and it is to bo remembered that, as if purposely to prevent us from being 

 misled, the trivial external characters of animals, such as distribution of colour, are often more 

 persistent than more important internal structures. 



The tide seems turning, however. Professors Brandt and Huxley have both shown indications of 

 reverting to the original view, and reinstating the Hyrax in its position as a Rodent. I shall so treat 

 it. If we went entirely by internal structure, we should find that we had to dispose of other relations 

 of affinity besides that of the Pachyderms. It and the Myrmecophaga alone of Mammals have a pair 

 of coecal af)f)endages to the intestines similar to those of birds, both in form, position, and direction. 

 Seeing, therefore, that it is in so many respects abnormal, I think it may be admitted to the com- 

 panionship which it itself, by its outward appearance, would seem to have selected. 



Five or six sj^ecies of Hyrax have been described ; some of which are, probably, only varieties. 

 Giebel admits only two;* one, the Syrian Saphan, or Coney of the Bible, Hyrax Sytiiacus, which 

 ranges from the coast of the Red Sea northwards through Syria, by Lebanon, and southwards into 

 Arabia and Ethioiiia ; the other, the Cape species, Hyrax Capensis, peculiar to the Cape and east 

 coast of Africa, extends from Abyssinia down the east coast southwards. 



It is to this species that Giebel refers the Hyrax arboreus, described by Smith as living in 

 woods. Peters found the same form in Mozambique, and it may be a mere variation in colour 

 of the Cape species. Dr. Kii-k found another species in Zambesia. Two other arboreal species, 

 H. DORSALis (Frmer) and H. sylvestris (Tcmm.), have been described from West Africa, but, they 

 are, in all probability, merely two names for the same thing. 



No fossil species of this genus have been discovered ; and no remains of the allied palseotheroid 

 animals which I have above referred to have been found elsewhere than in Europe. 



* Giebel " die Saugethiere," i. 210. 



