TREE-DASSIES 223 



faintest resemblance, either in form or habits, but nevertheless the 

 name, being in popular use at the Cape, and not confusing to 

 English people, may well be allowed to stand. " Rock-Rabbit," also 

 a Cape term, is not correct either, and much more likely to make 

 people run away with a false idea of the Dassie's affinities. 



The flesh of this animal is sometimes used for food, but is dry 

 and tasteless. It is tenacious of life, requiring a large charge of 

 shot, and bites fiercely if not killed outright. In captivity it lives 

 well, but does not like being shut up in close quarters, becoming 

 irritable and biting readily. Many specimens have been exhibited in 

 the London Zoological Society's Gardens, and it has bred there, 

 though not of late years. 



There are about twenty species of Dassies altogether, all so much 

 alike that any one could at once recognise their relationship, and all 

 are purely African animals except one, the Syrian Dassie {Hyrax 

 syriacus) which ranges into Arabia and Palestine. This animal is 

 well known by name as the " Coney " of Scripture, its habit of 

 sheltering its feebleness by lodging among rocks being noted there, 

 while it was forbidden to the Jews as food as being one of the cud- 

 chewers which had not cloven hoofs. It does not, as a matter of 

 fact, chew the cud, but, like the Hare, has a habit of champing its 

 jaws in a way that suggests its doing so. " Coney," of course, simply 

 means " Rabbit " in old English, and every one is familiar with the 

 retention of the word in legal phraseology, " trespassing in search of 

 Conies " being such a common rural offence. It is rather curious to 

 find English colonists at the Cape making ^ the same mistake, and 

 calling their Dassies Rock " Rabbits." 



TREE-DASSIES 



Although there is such a general similarity among the members of 

 this small family as far as appearance goes, there is a curious differ- 

 ence in point of habits in some cases, several of the species, forming 



