144 THE CONEY OF SCRIPTURE. 



by our firing, uttered a growl as if to intimate his 

 proximity, and give us a caution that we must take 

 care what we were about. I felt anxious that my 

 companion should proceed with me to his lair, but 

 he declined, on account of our number not being 

 sufficient to render such an adventure prudent ; add- 

 ing, moreover, that he never liked to meddle with 

 lions unless they had done him harm, and appearing 

 to think that only in such cases were these attacks 

 justifiable. He did not hesitate to express his con- 

 viction that if we went to shoot them for mere sport, 

 some accident would befall us. 



Observing a number of those very beautiful and 

 curious birds, the Ibis calva, flying about the clefts 

 of the mountain, at the back of Fisher's house, and 

 to all appearance engaged in building their nests, I 

 ascended, as far as I could advance, and endea- 

 voured to conceal myself from their view, but with- 

 out success, as they kept flying at a considerable 

 height round the peak, watching all my movements, 

 as if aware of being above the reach of powder 

 and shot. While I was here, two young dasses 

 or rock rabbits fell from a projecting crag, which 

 I caught alive and kept for several weeks; this 

 little animal, the hyrax, is generally supposed to 

 be the coney of Scripture, and abounds in all the 

 rocky and mountainous parts of this country : from 

 the nature of its internal formation, it is classed in 

 the order of Pachydermata. Although, to a super- 



