^20 SYRIAN HYRAX. 



having interdicted him this practice by furnishing 

 him with feet^, the toes of which are perfectly 

 round, and of a soft, P^^PJ^ tender substance; 

 the fleshy parts of the toes project beyond the 

 nails, which are rather broad than sharp, much 

 similar to a man's nails ill grown, and these ap- 

 pear rather given him for the defence of his soft 

 toes, than for any active use in digging, to which 

 they are by no means adapted. 



His hind foot is long and narrow, divided 

 with two deep wrinkles, or clefts, in the middle, 

 drawn across the centre, on each side of which 

 the flesh rises with considerable protuberancy, 

 and it is terminated by three claws ; the middle 

 one is the longest. The fore foot has four toes, 

 three disposed in the same proportion as the 

 hind foot ; the fourth, the largest of the whole, 

 is placed lower down on the side of the foot, 

 so that the top of it arrives no farther than the 

 bottom of the toe next to it. The sole of the 

 foot is divided in the centre by deep clefts, like 

 the other, and this cleft reaches down to the heel, 

 which it nearly divides. The whole of the fore 

 foot is very thick, fleshy, and soft, and of a deep 

 black colour, altogether void of hair, though the 

 back or upper part of it is thick-covered like 

 the rest of its body, down to where the toes 

 divide, there the hair ends, so that these long 

 toes very much resemble the fingers of a man. 



In the place of holes, it seems to delight in 

 less close, or more airy places, in the mouths of 

 caves, or clefts in the rock, or where one pro- 



