IIIO 



THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



in the morning and evening, but also bask sometimes in the hot sun at midday. 

 They are very inquisitive, and sit up on a rock, and look at one, and then suddenly 

 dash into their hiding place. After a time, if one remains quiet, they come out for 

 another look, and afford a good chance for a shot. Their cry of alarm is a short, 

 hissing noise. They had young at the time of our visit [November], and I met 

 with two litters, each of three young, which were about the size of very large rats, 

 with soft chocolate-brown downy hair. The young play about on the rocks together 

 like kittens, chasing one another and darting in and out among the clefts." 



The Syrian hyrax (P. syriacd] is the coney of Scripture, and the 

 Syrian yrax Q ^ S p ec ies found out of Africa, its range including Syria, Palestine, 

 the Sinaitic Peninsula, and the whole of Arabia. It is a small or medium-sized 

 and rather variable species, with somewhat soft and shaggy hair of a dull orange- 

 yellow or fawn color; and the spot on the back rather small, oval, and its com- 

 ponent hairs yellow throughout their length. Canon Tristram states that these 



hyraces produce 

 from three to six 

 young at a birth, 

 but that four ap- 

 pears to be the 

 ordinary number. 

 He observes that 

 ' ' they are far too 

 wary to be taken in 

 traps, and the only 

 chance of securing 

 one is patiently to 

 lie concealed, about 

 sunset or before 

 sunrise, on some 

 overhanging cliff, 

 taking care not to 

 let the shadow be 



cast below, and thus to wait till the little creatures cautiously peep forth from their 



holes. . . . They make a nest of dried grass and fur, in which the young are 



buried like those of a mouse. The flesh is much prized by the Arabs. We found 



it good, but rather dry and insipid, as dark in color as that of the hare." 



Tree Hyraces Three s P e cies of the genus, of which one is from Western and one 



from Eastern Africa, and not improbably a third from the central 



equatorial region, differ from the rest in their arboreal habits. These three species 



agree in that the females have but a single pair of teats, and are respectively known 



as P valida from Mount Kilima-Njaro, readily distinguished from all the others by 



the bright fulvous hue of the under parts, P. arborea from Eastern and Southeastern 



ca, and P. dorsalis ranging on the West Coast from Liberia to the Cameroons and 



The latter species is of large size, and characterized by its long, 



laggy fur, black at the base and white at the tips of the hair, and the relatively- 



TREE HYRAX. 



(After Thomas.) 



