Liberia <*- 



ungulate.' The toes in the hind-feet are restricted to three 

 in number, but the hands are really five-toed, though the 

 first toe (our thumb) is reduced to a mere rudiment concealed 

 beneath the skin. As regards the teeth, the adult hyraxes 

 are much more specialised than their young, for the milk teeth 

 in these animals show a dentition of three pairs of incisors 

 above, two pairs below, and a pair of canines in both jaws. The 

 old animal has one pair of incisors and a pair of canines in 

 the upper jaw, and two pairs of incisors and no canines in the 

 lower jaw, the grinding teeth in both jaws consisting of the 

 common mammalian formula of four pairs of premolars and 

 three pairs of molars. The canine tooth in the upper jaw 

 usually drops out when the second set of teeth makes its appear- 

 ance. Consequently, the usual dentition of these animals in 

 the adult form and to ordinary observers consists of a very 

 rodent-like pair of gnawing teeth above and two pairs of gnawing 

 teeth below, with a considerable interval in the front of each 

 jaw between these small tusks (as they ultimately become). 

 This space is less marked in the young animal, as it is filled 

 up, in the upper jaw, by a minute middle pair of incisors, which 

 afterwards drop out. The upper incisors project considerably 

 from the animal's cloven lips, and the natives of Liberia assert 

 (as do other Africans) that these tree hyraxes help themselves 

 in their climbing by driving their tusks into the bark. They 

 can of course inflict very serious bites with these sharp 

 incisors. 



The molar teeth alone would serve to class the hyrax 

 amongst the great group of ungulates ; but these little creatures 

 are in another sense hoofed animals, in that (with one ex- 



' Dr. Chalmers Mitcliell in tlie Transactions of tlie Zoological Society for 

 December, 1905 (on the Intestinal Tract of Mammals), demonstrates tlie "primitive 

 mammalian " pattern of the intestines in the Hyracoidea. They have, for example, 

 a well-developed pair of caca (blind guts). 



710 



