46 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species o/'Hyrax. 



purchased at a sale with Capra niibiana, which appears to be- 

 long to this species ; it has the same long hair and fur, show- 

 ing no sign of the punctulation characteristic of the African 

 species with a yellow dorsal spot. 



Mr. Tristram gives a good account of the habits and manners 

 of this animal in his interesting ' Natural History of the Bible,' 

 published by the Christian Knowledge Society. 



2. EUHYEAX, 



Skull with a distinct narrow sagittal crest the whole length 

 of the crown when adult ; occipital not dilated above ; nose 

 elongate, produced. Diastema elongate, longer than the length 

 of the outer sides of the first three premolars ; grinders in a 

 nearly straight series ; molars square, larger than the com- 

 pressed premolars. Orbit incomplete behind. 



The skull is very similar to that of Hyrax syriacus^, H. 

 Brucei, H. Burtonii, and H. capensis in general form ; but 

 the space between the upper cutting-teeth and the first pre- 

 molar is nearly twice as long as in those species. In the 

 H. Brucei it is as long as the length of the outer sides of 

 the first three premolars and the half of the fourth one ; in 

 H. capensis it is only as long as the outer sides of the first two 

 premolars and one-third of the third one. The grinders are 

 large, the first upper one being compressed as in H. capensis ; 

 but they are all smaller, compared with the size of the skull, 

 and are placed in a straighter line, than they are in the 

 other skulls of the species named, and the inner sides of them 

 are more nearly parallel, so that the palate is scarcely wider 

 in the middle of the series of grinders than it is at the front 

 and hinder ends of them. Lower jaw dilated behind. The 

 bladebone elongate trigonal like that of Hyrax. 



I may observe that Mr. Gerrard, in his ' Catalogue of 

 Bones of Mammalia in the British Museum,' has pointed out 

 that there is a distinction in the skeleton between this species 

 and H. capensis. He states that the specimen 724 a, in his 

 Catalogue, " has twenty-two pairs of ribs, the first of which 

 are articulated to the last cervical vertebra, and five sternal 

 bones," the H. capensis^ 724 J, in the same collection having 

 only twenty-one pairs of ribs and seven sternal bones. (See 

 Cat. Bones, p. 283.) 



It is well worthy of observation that all these osteological 

 characters exist in two species scarcely to be distinguished by 

 their skins. The skull of Eiihyrax abyssinicus is interme- 

 diate between Hyrax and Dendrohyrax, but more allied to 

 Hyrax. 



