250 ZOOLOGY. 



species is liable has also caused it to be greatly sub- 

 divided ; but so mucb do skins vary in colour that I 

 am by no means surprised that naturalists, having only 

 access to a few specimens in a museum, should consider 

 that they had evidence of the existence of several 

 species. 



Being aware of the difficulties which existed, I en- 

 deavoured, when in Abyssinia, to obtain as large a series 

 as I possibly could, and I brought away with me twenty- 

 eight skins from different parts of the country. Since 

 my return to Europe I have not only compared these 

 with the types described by Dr. Gray, but I have also 

 examined the specimens in the Berlin Museum which 

 were collected by Hemprich and Ehrenberg and de- 

 scribed and figured in the " Symbolse Physicee." The 

 conclusion at which I have arrived is that there are 

 probably five^ (perhaps six) distinguishable races of 

 Hyrax in North-eastern Africa, one or two of which 

 appear to be new ; but so great is the difficulty of 

 distinguishing between the different forms, and such is 

 the risk of error, that I hesitate to add to the already 

 very considerable list of names, as of the supposed new 

 species I have in one case one, in the other two, spe- 

 cimens only. 



The principal characters relied upon by Dr. Gray for 

 the classification of the Hyraces are the form of the 

 skull, the colour of the dorsal spot, the harshness or 



' The two species not obtained by me are H. ruficeps vel dongolanus of 

 Ehrenberg, which, from an examination of the types of both specimens, I 

 have ascertained to be the same as H. Burtoni of Gray ; and the Shoa 

 animal called Euh.yrax, ahyssinicus by Gray. 



