THE CAPE HYRAX. 323 



Different names given to the hyrax. 



sence of the bird, but treated it with a kind of 

 absolute indifference. The cage, indeed, was 

 large, and the birds, having a perch to sit upon 

 in the upper part of it, did not annoy one ano- 

 ther." 



" In Amhara," continues our author, " this 

 animal is called ashoko, which I apprehend, is 

 derived from the singularity of those long hairs, 

 which, like small thorns, grow about his back, 

 and which, in Amhara are called ashok. la 

 Arabia and Syria he is called Israel's sheep, 

 or Gannim Israel; for what reason I know not 

 unless it be from his frequenting the rocks of 

 Horeb and Sinai, where the children of Israel 

 made their forty years peregrination ; perhaps 

 this name obtains only among the Arabians. I 

 apprehend he is known by that of saphan in the 

 Hebrew, and is the animal erroneously called by 

 our translators the cuniculus, or rabbit." 



THE CAPE HYRAX. 



THIS animal is commonly known in its na- 

 tive regions by the name of the rock-badger, 

 though its feet are not formed for digging or 

 burrowing. It resides in the hollows of the rocks 

 and clifts, and leaps with considerable agility. 

 It is about the size of a common rabbit, and not 

 much unlike it in colour. The body and lirnbs 



