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THE MAMMALS OF ETHIOPIAN AFRICA 



species, P. shoana, inhabits Shoa and southern Abyssinia, and is almost the largest 

 of the group with the exception of the Cape hyrax ; it is distinguished from most 

 other species by the patch, marking the gland on the back, being black, and also by 

 its long, soft, silky coat. A fourth species, Bruce's hyrax (P. brucei), which ranges 

 from the south of Abyssinia, through Somaliland, into Portuguese East Africa and 

 Nyasaland, is small, with a long, narrow, yellow or whitish patch on the back ; it 

 lives at an altitude of about 1500 feet. The Cape hyrax (P. capensis), ranging 

 from the extreme south of Cape Colony into Rhodesia, has moderately long, soft, 

 fine, greyish brown fur, flecked with pale yellow or white, and the gland on the 

 back marked by an irregular oval black patch. These hyraxes lead much the same 

 kind of life as marmots, feeding in the morning and evening, and coming out of 

 their holes to sun themselves at noon. They do not make their own burrows, but 





NUBIAN HYEAX. 



occupy holes or crannies among the rocks. Their wonderful clinging powers are due 

 to the moist skin on the soles of the feet which they can contract into a kind of 

 cup, thus enabling them, even when shot dead, to continue hanging on almost 

 perpendicular surfaces. Some of the species, instead of dwelling amid rocks, are 

 arboreal. To this group belongs the eastern tree-hyrax, P. validus, of the 

 Kilimanjaro district, distinguished by the tawny yellow of the under-parts. 

 Dwelling in the dense forests of Kilimanjaro at a height of from 7000 to 10,000 

 feet, it spends its time in the branches of trees, where it both sleeps and breeds. 

 Another member of the same group, the western tree-hyrax (P. dorsalis), ranges 

 from Liberia to the Cameruns, and is distinguished by its rather large head, and 

 the long, shaggy black fur, in which the hairs are white at the tips. The South 



