74 Conies. 



zoologists, a sort of waif or stray of nature, having 

 no near relations in the world at the present time, 

 and no direct affinity with any extinct form as yet 

 discovered. 



The Hyracidse, of which there are some six or 

 seven species, are active furry little beasts, much 

 like rodents in appearance and habits, and have 

 been compared to hares, rabbits, and marmots a 

 likeness which accounted for the position which 

 was formerly allotted to them by naturalists among 

 the rodentia, but which was not sufficient to retain 

 them in that order when their anatomical structure 

 came to be studied by the scientific zoologists of 

 the present century. Cuvier was the first to point 

 out that they were wrongly placed among the 

 rodents, and he removed them, and placed them 

 among the ungulates, or rather pachyderms, 

 between the rhinoceros and tapir a position 

 which they retained for some time, but from 

 which they have now been dislodged, and placed in 

 an order Hyracoidea by themselves. Certainly 

 no one guided by outward appearance alone could 

 imagine any affinity whatever between active little 

 furry animals like these and such ponderous beasts 

 as the elephant or rhinoceros, and Cuvier very 

 justly observes in this connexion that there is no 

 quadruped which proves more completely than 

 Hyrax the necessity of having recourse to anatomy 

 for the determination of the true relations of 

 animals. It is, of course, impossible within the 

 limit of this article to give even an outline of the 



