42 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species ()/'Hyrax. 



The skeleton with a skull (724 e), m the British Museum, 

 of a young animal with milk cutting-teeth, has a subtriangular 

 interparietal, somewhat like that of H. Burtonii. 



In the British Museum there is the skull and skeleton of 

 a very young animal, received from the Zoological Gardens 

 (No. 724 A), which is peculiar for having a very broad, half- 

 oblong interparietal bone occupying the hinder edge of the 

 crown, with only the narrow upper edge of the occipital bone 

 behind it. The front edge of the interparietal is regularly 

 rounded, and the hinder one straight. The orbit is incom- 

 plete. De Blainville figures a skull of a young specimen 

 (Ost^og. t. 2) as H. cafpensis which somewhat resembles this 

 skull. This skull, in the form of the interparietal, agrees with 

 the nearly adult skull oi Dendrohyrax dorsalis (No. 1142 c) ; 

 but we have a skull of a very young animal of that genus in 

 the Museum Collection which has the orbit complete and the 

 upper part of the occipital bone dilated. This skull is so dis- 

 tinct from any other in the collection that I propose to designate 

 it provisionally Hyrax semicircular is. 



The interparietal bone being on the edge of the occipital 

 region of the skull is a character (as well as the incomplete 

 orbit) that separates the skull of Hyrax and DendrohyraXj 

 even in the youngest state. 



* Do7'saI sjjot black, well marked. Africa. 

 1. Hyrax capensis. The Klipdas. 



Fur black, minutely punctulated with white, Avith a black 

 dorsal streak. 



Hyrax capensis, Sclireb. Saugeth. 920, t. 240; Cuvier, Oss. Foss. ii. 127, 

 141, t. 1, 2, 3 ; Gray, List Mam. Brit. Mus. 187 ; Gerrard, Cat. Bones 

 Brit. Mus. 283 ; Blainville, Osteograpli. t. 2 (teeth & skull) ; W.Read, 

 P. Z. S. 1835, p. 13. 



Cavia capensis, Pallas, Misc. 34, 35 ; Spicil. ii. 22. t. 2. 



Marmotte du Cap, BuiFon, Suppl. iii. 177, t. 29. 



Hah. South Africa, Cape of Good Hope. (Dr. Andrew 

 Smith.) 



Var. Dorsal streak indistinct. 



Cape of Good Hope (Dr. Krauss) . Skull and skeleton, B.M. 



For anatomy, see Pallas, Miscell. I. c. ; Owen, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 202 ; Mar- 

 tin, P. Z. S. 1835, p. 13; Murie, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 329. 



But I am by no means sure that several species may not be 

 confounded imder this name ; for all the specimens formerly 

 received at the Zoological Gardens were called //. rappusis. 



