62 MR. o. THOMAS ON THE [Jan. 5, 



form to Hemprich and Ehrenberg's H. habessinicus has been 

 frequently questioned, and, as will be seen below in the remarks to 

 that species (p. 66), I hare come to the conclusion that it cannot 

 be supported. The species therefore requires the new name given 

 it by Giglioli, if it is considered to be distinct from P. capensis, to 

 which it is most certainly allied. However, although its skull cannot 

 be with certainty distinguished from that of the Cape animal, yet its 

 longer softer fur, its more olivaceous colour, its much larger dorsal 

 spot, and its great difference in locality induce me to consider it as 

 requiring specific distinction. 



The Genoa Museum possesses a large series of this handsome 

 animal, obtained at many different localities in Shoa by Messrs. An- 

 tinori, Beccari, and Ragazzi, while there are in the British Museum 

 the two typical specimens, besides several skulls, collected by Capt. 

 Harris at Ankober. In addition I refer to this species the two 

 specimens from the Dalanta plateau spoken of as " Hyrax sp. nov." 

 by Mr. Blanford \ this locality being the most northern recorded 

 for the present species, and yet considerably south of any place at 

 which he obtained H. abyssinica (his H. brucei) -. 



3. Procavia syriaca. 



Hyrax syriacus, Schreb. Saug. iv. pi. ccxl. B (1784), p. 923 

 (1792). 



Hyrax sinaificus^, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) i. p. 45 (1868). 



Size medium or rather small. Mammae 1-2=6. Fur long, 

 rather soft and shaggy, not so smooth as in the other species. 

 General colour a sort of dull orange-yellow or fawn, not so sandy as 

 P. rujiceps. Belly yellow or brownish yellow, but very variable in 

 tone. 



Dorsal spot large and clearly marked, yellow, the hairs yellow 

 throughout, to their extreme tips and bases ; the yellow paler basally 

 and darker terminally. 



Skull ^ broad and strongly made, rather narrower, however, in the 

 S. Arabian subspecies. Interparietal sutures persistent. Diastema 

 about 9 mm., very slightly longer in the southern specimens. Molar 

 teeth variable in size. 



Ribs 20 (in one young specimen and also in that figured by 

 De Blainville). 



Hab. Syria, Palestine, the Sinaitic Peninsula, and the whole of 

 Arabia. 



This species was first described by Bruce in 1790% but as he 

 confounded the Abyssinian and Palestine Hyraces, the name syriaca, 

 based on his description, has been rejected by some authors on the 

 ground that his " Ashkoko " is the Abyssinian species and not the 

 Palestine one. It is, however, quite clear that his main description 



* Zool. Abyss, p. 257. 

 2 L. c. p. 252. 



^ See footnote ^ to P. rujiceps, p. 64. 



* Good figures : De Blainville, Osteogr. iii, Hyrax, pis. i. & ii. 

 ' Bruce, Travels, v. p. 139. 



