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Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Hyrax. 39 
Ostéog. t.3). The following are the measurements, in inches 
and lines :— 
Hyrax,724b. Dendrohyrax, 1142 6. 
Length of upper edge .......... 2 2 1 9 
9 lower edge .......... Z.1 bi 7 
Width at widest part .......... A: Pr. 6 
Skulls with the teeth in change show the milk- and perma- 
nent cutting-teeth at the same time, thus having four upper 
cutting-teeth. A skull with teeth in this state 1s figured b 
Cuvier (Oss. Foss. ii. p. 135, t. 2. f. 5). ; 
In most skulls there is a small hole on each side near the 
back edge of the cutting-teeth, which Cuvier calls the trous 
ancisifs (t. 2. f. 2 n); see also Jaeger, Wiirzb. naturw. Jahresb. 
1860, xvi. t. 2.f. 20, who regards it as the remainder of a 
deciduous second cutting-tooth. This pit is less distinct and 
nearer the base of the cutting-teeth in the skull of Dendro- 
hyrax. 
E Biotetsors Hemprich and Ehrenberg propose as a specific 
character the length of the feet com ak with the tibie ; but 
this is difficult to observe in dried specimens or in set-up 
skeletons, as the length of the feet must depend greatly on 
how the specimens are mounted. 
It is the fashion with certain naturalists (as M. Claparéde, for 
example) to find fault with zoologists for describing specimens 
in museums; but, as far as mammalia are concerned, it is 
‘much more difficult to describe them from living specimens ; 
for then one cannot observe their teeth and bones, or compare 
many specimens with one another, and can rarely have the op- 
portunity of comparing several species at the same time,—all 
much greater evils than not being able to tell the sex &c. of 
the specimens contained in museums. I must say that I think 
the accusation that “‘ museums are a gréat incubus to science ”’ 
- must have arisen from the naturalist making it taking a very 
limited view of the subject. Museums may cause some evil 
(what does not ?); but the advantages of a large collection far 
exceed any evil I have ever experienced or can ever conceive 
to arise from them. 
Fam. Hyracide. 
_ Nose blunt, without horns. Body covered with hair, with 
scattered longer bristles; toes rather elongate, blunt, with flat 
claws.. Tail short or none produced. Teeth 34: incisors os 
* 0.0 4.4 3.3 : 
canines ~;, premolars ~>, molars =. 
Hyraz, Hermann Lipura, lliger; Hyracide, Schinz, Syst. Mamm. 338. 
