190 THE SYRIAN HYRAX. 



From the close resemblance which these little 

 animals have to many of the Glires, they have 

 been generally placed with them. The Baron 

 Cuvier, however, by attention to their anatomy, 

 clearly demonstrated their alliance, at least, with 

 the animals we have been describing, and has 

 placed them there, while the latest published 

 system, by Mr Swainson,* has assigned their 

 station as the Glireform type of the Pachydermes. 



Pallas, who was the first that anatomically 

 examined the Hyrax, saw specimens alive at 

 Amsterdam, but took his anatomical details only 

 from the body, (as Cuvier observes, without the 

 most important parts, the head and feet,) having 

 been transmitted to him in spirits after skinning. 

 By this excellent naturalist, it is placed among 

 the Cavies, but with the remark, that in several 

 points it essentially differed from them, His 

 remarks were taken from the H. Capensis. 



Cuvier points out the following near resem- 

 blance of the skeleton of Hyrax to some of the 

 Pachydermes. In the general composition of the 

 trunk, there are several alliances ; and one of the 

 more remarkable analogies is, that the Hyrax has 

 twenty-one ribs on each side, a number greater 

 than that of other quadrupeds, the Sloth excepted, 

 which has twenty-three ; and those animals, which 



* Classification of Quadrupeds, p. 198. 



