MAMMALIA. 



Hyrax syriacus, Hemp, et Ehr. Coney. Seen only on the summit 

 of Jebel Musa, but occurs in warrens amongst boulders in several places 

 amongst the Sinaitic mountains. This peculiar little animal, which 

 belongs to the only genus of the order called after it, and placed next the 

 elephants, is the sole representative found outside the African continent, 

 where two or three other species of hyrax are found. It is the shaphan, 

 or 'coney,' of the Bible, the daman, or wabar, of the Arabs, and probably 

 the ashkoko of Ethiopia. See Cassell's Nat. Hist., ii. 292 ; article by 

 Messrs. Boyd Dawkins and Oakley. See also Tristram's Nat. Hist, of 

 Bible, and Wyatt's Ord. Survey of Sinai, App. For earlier notices, see 

 Laborde's 'Arabia Petrsea'; and for the views of ancient writers, and 

 an excellent general account, I would refer the reader to a too little 

 known work — Harris's ' Natural History of the Bible,' 1824. The coney 

 is found from Ethiopia and Arabia to Arabia Petrsea and Lebanon. 

 Captain Burton obtained it in Midian on Jebel el Shan, latitude 27° 30'. 



Sus scro/a, Linn. Boars were actually seen by our party only near 

 Bir es Sehk, where their fresh traces were also very abundant. In the 

 reedy jungles south of the Dead Sea, although I heard these animals 

 crashing in front of me once or twice, and came frequently on the ' spoor ' 

 of old and young in the mud, which I followed into the thickest parts, I 

 never obtained a shot. In the bare Judaean plain between the Ghor and 

 Gaza, where there is rarely cover or hiding-place, these animals abound 

 on account of the plentiful supply of bulbs on which they feed. Bulbs of 

 Urginea (Scilla), and especially U. undulata, Desf., are much esteemed ; 



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