177 



HTRAX. 



HYRAX. 



178 



to have a great analogy to that of the Hare and other Rodents, being 

 sacculated, and distended with a blackish pultaceous matter; but in 

 form one would compare it rather with that of the Tapir, its magni- 

 tude arising more from its breadth than its length. The dilated part 

 of the colon was bent in a sigmoid form, and the remainder was con- 

 voluted on a broad mesocolon, and at a distance of two feet from the 

 dilated part (when unravelled) terminated between two conical cosoa 

 in a second dilated intestine. These singular cosca are minutely 

 described by Professor Owen, who then makes the following observa- 

 tions : " In looking through the vertebrata for an analogous forma- 

 tion of the intestinal canal, we shall find the Hyrax standing almost 

 alone in this respect : among the Mammalia it is only in a few of the 

 edentate species that the double ccecum is to be met with, as, for exam- 

 ple, Myrmecophaga didactyta, Linn., and Da&ypv* G-cinctus, Linn. ; 

 wliilht in birds, although the double coecum more generally prevails, 

 yet an additional single coecum, anterior to these, has only been found 

 in a few species. This structure however completes the analogy, 

 quoad the number of coaca ; but, with respect to function, the cases 

 are widely different : the single anterior coecum of Hyrax evidently 

 performs an important part in digestion ; while in the bird it exhibits 

 merely a trace of a structure peculiar to embryonic life. I should consider 

 however the double coecum of Hyrax as indicating an affinity to the 

 group (Edentata) which intervenes, in the system of Cuvier, between 

 the order it was originally placed in, and the one to which that great 

 naturalikt has transferred it. And it is interesting to find that while 

 the facieH of Hyrax so far simulates that of a Rodent as to have 

 deceived the older naturalists, and to have concealed from them those 

 unerring indications of its alliance with the Pacltydermata which the 

 osseous system exhibits ; yet that nature, as if in confirmation of her 

 abhorrence to the saltus, had left in the internal structure of this singu- 

 lar animal an impression borrowed from the type of the Edentata." 



Professor Owen further remarks that although the stomach of some 

 of the Rodents, as the Common Rat, and of the Edentata, as the 

 Manit, exhibits a particular cuticular lining, yet it is among the 

 Pachyderms that this structure is most prevalent. In Hyrax two- 

 thirds of the stomach, on the cardiac side, are lined with a thick white 

 and wrinkled cuticle. 



The liver had the same form and number of lobes as described by 

 Pnlls. The middle lobe had the usual two notches, into the left of 

 which the coronary ligament entered ; but the right contained no gall- 

 bladder, which in Hyrax, as in some of the Rodents and many of the 

 Pachyderms, is deficient. Professor Owen observed that a compensa- 

 tion for this deficiency was however in some measure apparent iu this 

 animal ; for the hepatic ducts, immediately on leaving the lobes of 

 the liver, dilated into three globular receptacles, the united capacities 

 of which would have equalled a moderate-sized gall-bladder. Professor 

 Owen also observed that, in Pallas's ' Spicilegia Zoologies,' the peculiar 

 insertion of the ureters is described with a note of admiration, and he 

 stated that he was not aware that a parallel structure has since been 

 discovered in any mammiferous animal possessing a urinary bladder. 

 It is not however, he added, precisely in the fund us or summit of the 

 bladder that the ureters open : they enter between the muscular fibres 

 at the back part of the fundus, at the angles, analogous to the situa- 

 tion t which the Fallopian tubes enter the human uterus ; but they 

 run obliquely downwards and inwards for two lines before they ter- 

 minate, leaving however a full inch of space between them and the 

 orifice of the urethra. For what purpose this structure is designed in 

 Hyrax, or whether the urine undergoes any change in consequence of 

 it, is uncertain. " The chief peculiarity observed in the muscular 

 ystem was a modification of the digastric muscle of the lower jaw, 

 which arose, as in the Armadilloes, from the upper part of the sternum 

 ia>od of the occiput or temporal bone ; and was inserted into the 

 whole ramus and angle of the lower jaw : it was of remarkable 

 strength, being as large as the stenio-cleido-mastoideus in man. It is 

 this muscle which occasions the peculiar fulness of the neck in the 

 Hyrax." (Owen.) 



In 1835 Mr. Martin dissected a second specimen of Hyrax Capemis, 

 presented to the Society by Mr. Ruditon Read. The total length of 

 the animal, which was a young male, was 1 foot 4 inches, that of the 

 bead being 34 inches. (' Poceedings of the Zoological Society ' for 1835.) 



Kolbe appears to be the first modern author who has noticed the 

 Hyrax of the Cape ; and he mentions it as a Marmot, a name adopted 

 by Vosmaer and Buffon, the latter of whom also applies to it the 

 term Daman, of which we shall presently have to speak. Blumenbach 

 left it among the Rodents; and Pallas, who first gave a methodical 

 and anatomical description of it, placed it under the genus C'uvia, 

 observing however that it differed remarkably from the congener* 

 with which he arranged it. Linnxus gave the form the same place in 

 his system under the name of Caria Capentii. Pennant does not 

 mention the animal in his ' Synopsis,' but in his ' History of Quad- 

 rupeds ' he figures it as the Bristly Cavy, with the synonyms of Aynus 

 Filiorum ftrael, ' Prosp. Alp. ./Egypt. ;' Daman Israel, Buff. ; Ashkoko, 

 i'.ni"; ; Il'/rnx Fyriacut, Omel. and Schreb. Hermann however was 

 the first who established the genus, and gave it the name of Hyrax. 

 Pennant also notices the form under the appellation of Cape Cavy 

 i Capentit, Pallas). Oinelin makes Ilyrnx the last genus of the 

 (/lira, and records two species, namely, Hyrax Capentii and 

 //. Kyrinou. We have seen the place assigned to it by Cuvier. Dr. 



HAT. HIOT. DIV. Vor_ III. 



Fischer arranges Hyrax under the order Belliue, between Elasmothe- 

 rium, an extinct genus, and Dicotylts ; he gives three species, Hyrax 

 Capensis, H. Syriacws, and H. Hudsonius, Schreb. (Lipura Hudsonia 

 of Illiger). The latter is not a Hyrax. Dr. Gray places the genus in 

 his sub-family Rhinocerina, belonging to the family Elephantida;, the 

 third family of his order Ungnlata, observing that Hyrax is allied to 

 Cariina, and giving the form a position between Rhinoceros and 

 Lipura and Elasmotherium. M. Lesson arranges Hyrax under the 

 order Pachyderms or Belliue of Linnaeus, between Elasmotherium aud 

 Dicotylet. Mr. Swainson (' Classification of Quadrupeds,' 1835) places 

 Hyrax Fyriacus, the Rock -Rabbit, next to Rhinoceros 1 , and, after 

 quoting Cuvier, remarks that " there is an obvious relation of some 

 sort between this singular genus, of which three species are now known, 

 and the Glires ; but whether of analogy or affinity it is impossible to 

 determine : for the present we place it as the gliriform type of the 

 Pachyderms upon the sole authority of what M. Cuvier has said of its 

 feet." In the next paragraph Mr. Swainson treats of Meyalortyx. In 

 the arrangement according to natural affinities, at the end of the 

 volume, Hyrax is the last of the Pachyderms, the first ' tribe ' of the 

 order Ungulata. The next tribe is ' Anopltheres,' and the first genus 

 of that tribe Su*. 



The generic characters of Hyrax are as follows : Conformation of 

 molar teeth like those of Rbinoceros. Two strong incisors without 

 recurved roots in the upper jaw (and two small canines in youth). 

 Body covered with thick hair, and beset here and there with erinaceous 

 bristles. A simple tubercle in lieu of a tail. Six teats, two pectoral 

 and four ventral. Four toes on each foot before, and three behind. 

 Dental formula given in col. 174. 



H. Syriacu*, the Daman, the Hyrax of Syria, is brownish gray above, 

 and has the lower parts white ; a yellowish tint intervenes between 

 the two colours : the head aud feet are more gray than the body. 

 The separate hairs are ringed with yellowish, black, and white. The 

 skin, where it is exposed, is of a blackish violet. Length about 1 foot ; 

 height about 11 inches. 



Tlii* species has been supposed to be identical with the Ashkoko, 

 or Askoko, of Bruce, who suys that it is found iu Ethiopia, in the 

 caverns of the rocks, or under the great stones in the Mountain of 

 the Sun, behind the queen's palace at Koscatn. It is also frequent, 

 he says, in the deep caverns in the rocks in many other places in 

 Abyssinia ; and he remarks that it does not burrow nor make holes, 

 like the rat and the rabbit, nature having interdicted this practice by 

 furnishing the animal with feet the toes of which are perfectly round, 

 soft, and pulpy, the fleshy parts projecting beyond the nails, " which 

 are rather broad than sharp, much similar to a man's nails ill grown ; 

 and these appear to bo given him rather for the defence of his soft 

 toes than for any active use in digging, to which they are by no 

 means adapted." 



Hyrar. 



Bruce states that, " in place of holes, the'"animal seems to delight in 

 less close or more airy places, in the mouths of cavea or clefts in the 

 rock, or where one projecting, and being open before, affords a long 

 retreat under it, without fear that this can ever be removed by the 

 strength or operations of man." He describes it as gregarious, and 

 says that frequently several dozens of them sit upon the great stones 

 at the mouth of caves warming themselves in the sun, and coming 

 out to enjoy the freshness of a summer evening. " They do not," he 

 continues, " stand upright upon their feet, but seem to steal along as 

 in fear, their belly being nearly close to the ground, advancing a few 

 steps at a time, aud then pau.-iing. They have something very mild, 

 feeble like, and timid in their deportment; are gentle, and easily 

 tamed, though when roughly handled at first they bite very severely." 

 The game author says that these quadrupeds are found plentifully on 



