The Hyrax of Syria. 139 



this genus is more or less prolonged, is in hyrax short, and is 

 furnished with labial whiskers like many of the Eodentia. 



The habits of the animal much resemble those of the rabbit ; 

 it is very timid, and alive to the approach of danger. If this is, 

 as is believed, the coney of Scripture, its description there is 

 especially fitting. They are a " feeble folk," who " make their 

 houses in the rocks," which are thus a " refuge for the conies." 

 Though they can bite sharply when handled, they are in no 

 way fitted for self-defence, and have a lively instinct of self-pre- 

 servation, and are " exceeding wise " in availing themselves of 

 shelter. They are gregarious, and, as I learn from a friend who 

 has visited their haunts in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, 

 they seldom leave the wild rocks among which they hide in the 

 broad daylight, but for a short time about sunrise, and from an 

 hour before sunset until dark. He has seen them, though 

 never able to approach very near, coming out in parties to feed, 

 and frolicking about in the nimblest fashion their heavy 

 bodies and short legs allow, feeding on the young shoots 

 chiefly of the Scilla maritime/, which abounds there, while one of 

 their number is always posted on some ledge of rock to keep a 

 look-out and warn them of danger ; he does this by a plaintive 

 warning cry, when they all immediately scuttle away to their 

 holes — the slightest movement or shadow of the enemy is suffi- 

 cient. They principally depend on the power of their sight, not 

 on their hearing, which, from the form and the small aperture 

 of their ears, is far less perfect than their sight ; in fact, he has 

 spoken to an attendant when on the cliffs immediately over 

 head without disturbing them. Bruce, probably in ignorance 

 of the nature of their food, tells how he shut up a tame one, 

 fasting, with fowls and smaller birds, but ' r he never showed 

 any alteration of behaviour in their presence, but treated them 

 with a kind of absolute indifference." They are very cleanly, 

 and are said to be good eating, but of this last we have no 

 evidence. 



Note. — I have spoken of the hyrax as the coney of Scripture. 

 Kitto says that it was first on the authority of the Rabbinical 

 writers that the shaphan has been identified with the coney. 

 There is no native rabbit in Syria ; the only other animal which 

 could be considered the shaphan was the jerboa, and this was 

 held by Burckhardt; but the habits of the jerboa do not corre- 

 spond with the Scriptural descriptions. — See Smith's Dictionary 

 of the Bible, under the head of ' ' Coney." 



