APPENDIX. ,43 



perch upon him, yet it would eat frequently, and at the fame 

 time, of the food upon which the Afhkoko was feeding ; 

 and in this confifted chiefly the familiarity I fpeak of, 

 for the Afhkoko himfelf never mewed any alteration of be- 

 haviour upon the prefence of the bird, but treated it with 

 a kind of abfolute indifference. The cage, indeed, was 

 large, and the birds having a perch to fit upon in the upper 

 part of it, they did not annoy one another. 



In Amhara this animal is called Afhkoko, which I appre- 

 hend is derived from the Angularity of thofe long herina-> 

 cious hairs, which, like fmail thorns, grow about his back, 

 and which in Amhara are called Afhok. In Arabia and Sy- 

 ria he is called IfraePs Sheep, or Gannim Ifrael, for what 

 reafon I know not, unlefs it is chiefly from his frequenting 

 the rocks of Horeb and Sinai, where the children of Ifrael 

 made their forty years peregrination ; perhaps this name ob- 

 tains only among the Arabians. I apprehend he is known 

 by that of Saphan in the Hebrew, and is the animal erro- 

 neously called by our translators Cuniculus, the rabbit or 

 coney. 



Many are the reafons againft admitting this animal, 

 mentioned by fcripture, to be the rabbit. We know that 

 this laft was an animal peculiar to Spain, and therefore 

 could not be fuppofed to be either in Judea or Arabia. 

 They are gregarious indeed, and fo far refembleeach other, 

 as alfo in point of iize/but in place of feeking houfes in the 

 rocks, we know the' cunicuius' defire is eonitantly fand. 

 They have claws, indeed, or nails, with which they dig 

 holes or burrows, but there is nothing remarkable in them, 

 or their frequenting rocks, fo as to be defcribed by that cir- 



cumRancc ; 



