18/6.] FEET OK CERTAIN MAMMALS. 527 



the smooth perpendicular trunks of which they run up and down 

 with as much security as if their feet were provided with sharp claws. 

 In ' The Heart of Africa ' *, Dr. Schwejnfurth has given a most in- 

 teresting account of the habits of one of the species of this genus. 

 He remarks : — " Abdoo, the controller of Mvolo, was half a natu- 

 ralist ; as a huntsman he had done service under many Europeans, 

 and had acquired a reputation of being a skilful stuffer of birds. He 

 drew my particular attention to the good sport afforded by the Rock- 

 rabbits as they crept about in tempting proximity to the gate of the 

 Seriba. At the same time he asked if I could account for the won«- 

 derful way in which the animals managed to clamber up and down 

 smooth rocks that were almost perpendicular. ' I can't tell,' he 

 said, 'how it is; but when you have shot one of the creatures, and 

 catch hold of it, it sticks to the rock with its feet in its death- 

 struggles, as though it had grown there.' The underpart of the foot 

 is dark and elastic as india-rubber, and has several deeply indented 

 cushions. This arrangement, which no other Mammalia or warm- 

 blooded animals seem to possess, enables the creature, by opening 

 and closing the centre cleft, to throw off part of its weight, and to 

 gain a firm hold upon the smooth surface of the stone. The toes 

 are nothing but pads of horny skin without regular nails, the hind 

 foot being alone furnished on the inner toe with one claw, which is 

 sharply compressed. For some time I could not at all comprehend 

 how, with such a plump foot, the Rock-rabbit could climb so safely 

 over precipitous walls of granite, or even along the polished branches 

 of the little trees in the ravines ; but the mystery was solved when 

 I tried to pick up an animal which I myself had wounded. The 

 granite was smooth as pavement ; and yet, when I seized the crea- 

 ture by the neck, it clung like birdlime to the ground, and required 

 some force before it could be removed." 



The very peculiar feet of Hyrax were first described by Bruce f; 

 and as his description is the most complete that has been taken from 

 the animal in its native country, I think it necesspny to quote it here 

 in full. Of the Askoko of Abyssinia (probably H. abyssinicus) he 

 writes as follows: — "This curious animal is found in Ethiopia, in 

 the caverns of the rocks, or under the great stones in the Mountain 

 of the Sun behind the queen's palace at Koscam. It is also frequent 

 in the deep caverns in the rocks in many other places in Abyssinia. 

 It does not burrow or make holes as the rat and rabbit ; nature 

 having interdicted him this practice by furnishing him with feet 

 the toes of which are perfectly round and of a soft pulpy tender sub- 

 stance ; the fleshy parts of the toes project beyond the nails, which 

 are rather broader than sharp, much similar to a man's nails ill 

 grown. His hind foot is long and narrow, divided with two deep 

 wrinkles or clefts in the middle, drawn across the centre, on each 

 side of which the flesh rises with considerable protuberancy ; and it 

 is terminated by three claws (? toes): the middle one is the longest. 



* Vol. i. p. 385. 



t ' Travels to discover the Source of the Nile in the jears 1768-73,' vol. v. 

 description of pi. 24. 



35* 



