1 38 The Hijrax of Syria. 



three to five inches apart, about three lines in depth, with their 

 orifices placed towards the ccecum. Their use is not very- 

 clear. 



The ccecum has a great analogy to that of the hare, and 

 other Eodents, being sacculated and distended with a black pul- 

 taceous matter ; in form one would compare it with that of the 

 tapir, its magnitude arising more from its breadth than its 

 length. The whole length of the intestinal canal is about six 

 times the length of the animal Owen adds, in looking at the 

 vertebrata for an analogous form of intestinal canal, hyrax 

 stands nearly alone. Among mammalia it is only in a few of 

 the Edentata that the double ccecum is met with, as in myrnie- 

 cophaga, didactyla, and dasypus G-cinctus ; while in birds, 

 although the double coocum more generally prevails, yet an 

 additional single ccecum anterior to these has only been found 

 in a few species. In the bird, however, the single anterior 

 ccecum exhibits merely a trace of structure peculiar to embryonic 

 life, in hyrax it evidently performs an important part of diges- 

 tion. He considers that the double ccecum of hyrax indicates 

 an affinity to the group which intervenes in the system of Cuvier 

 between the order in which it was originally placed and the 

 one to which Cuvier transferred it. It is interesting to note 

 that while the facies of hyrax so far simulates that of a rodent 

 as to have deceived the older naturalists, yet nature, as if in 

 abhorrence to the saltus, has left in the internal structure an 

 impression borrowed from the typo of the Edentata. 



The question whether hyrax ruminates is not easy to an- 

 swer. I have the authority of Professor Huxley for asserting 

 that the non-possession of a ruminant stomach is no proof that 

 the action is impossible, and cases are recorded on the part 

 of the hare, the kangaroo, and even of man himself, though in 

 each of these it lias certainly been an abnormal act. The 

 stomach of the hyrax, partially constricted by a sphincter mus- 

 cle, and having no cardiac valve, renders it perfectly possible 

 that it is a habit of the animal generally, as it certainly seems to 

 have been of the one kept by Mr. Heed, referred to above. 



The soft, deep fur of the hyrax is unique among the Pachy- 

 derms, and more closely resembles that of the Rodents in ap- 

 pearance; its microscopic character is however totally unlike 

 theirs. The close hair of the peccary is bristly, more like the 

 long, black, erinaceous hairs which arc scattered over (ho 

 coat of the hyrax. Bruce imagined thai It was from these hairs 

 that the animal derived its Abyssinian name of Ashkoko, from 

 ashkok, a thorn. These hairs are absent in Oajpensie, The fur, 

 which is of a greyish-brown, does not, as before stated, extend 

 to the under surface of the feet. The ears are small, rounded, 

 and white within; the Bnout, which in every other species of 



