HYRACES, 



5*' 



Syrian Hyrax. 



short, hissing noise. They had young si fcha time of oat visit, [November], end I 

 met witli two litters, each of three young, which were about the size of very large 

 rats, with soft chocolate brown downy hair. The young piny about on the rocks 

 together like kittens, chasing one another, and darting In and out among the 

 clefts." 



The Syrian hyraa (P.tyriaoa) is the coney of Scripture, and the 

 only species found out of Africa, its range including Syria, Palestine, 

 the Sinaitic Peninsula, and the whole of Arabia. It, is a small or medium 

 and rather variable species, with somewhat soft and shaggy hair of 1 dull on 

 yellow or fawn colour; and the spot on the hack rather mi ial I, oval, and its com- 

 ponent hairs yellow throughout their length, Canon Tristram states that these 

 li v ra cea prod uce 

 from three to six 

 young at a birth, 



hut that four ap- 

 pears to be the. 

 ordinary Dumber. 



Be observes t! 



" they are far too 

 wary to he taken in 

 1 rap-, and the only 

 chance of securing •. 

 one is patiently to 

 lie concealed, about 

 sunset or before 

 rise, on some 

 banging cliff, 



taking (-are not to 



let the shadow be cast below, and thus to wait till the little creatures cautiously 

 peep forth from their holes. . . . They make a nest of dried grass and fur, in which 

 the young are buried like those of a mouse. The flesh is much prized by the 



Arabs. We found it good, but rather <\vy and insipid, as dark in colour as that of 



the hare." 



Three BpedeS of the genus, of which one, is from Western and 

 two are from Be ton Africa, and not improbably S third from the 



central equatorial region, differ from the rest in their arboreal habits. These three, 



species agree in that the females have hut a single pair of teats; and are resp< et, 

 IVely known as/'. VCllida from Mount, Kiliina Xjaio, readily distinguished from all 

 the, others by the bright fulvous hue of the under parts, /'. n/rhon-n, from Kastern 

 and South Ka tern Africa,, and /'. dortaUs ranging on the west coa t, from Liberia 



to the Cameruns and Fernando Pa The latter spedee is of large size, and 



"tensed by its long shaggy fur, black at the, base and whit" at, tin- tips of the 

 hairs, and the relatively large size of the head compared to the lxxly. The. 



Kilima-Xjii.ro species is found at elevations of from seven thousand to eleven thousand 

 feet, i,, 1 1,,. dense tore 1 clothing the mountain. They live entirely in the, trees, 



making their lairs and breeding-places in holes in the houghs and trunkH ; and 



in, I, IIYIIAX. Alle, Tlidliiin. 



rtf"'* 



Tree-Hyraces. 



