190 
THE SYRIAN HYRAX. 
From the close resemblance which these little 
animals have to many of the Glires, they have 
been generally placed with them. The Baron 
Cuvier, however, by attention to their anatomy, 
clearly demonstrated their alliance, at least, with 
the animals we have been describing, and has 
placed them there, while the latest published 
system, by Mr Swainson,* has assigned their 
station as the Glireform type of the Pachydermes. 
Pallas, who was the first that anatomically 
examined the Hyrax, saw specimens alive at 
Amsterdam, but took his anatomical details only 
from the body, (as Cuvier observes, without the 
most important parts, the head and feet,) having 
been transmitted to him in spirits after skinning. 
By this excellent naturalist, it is placed among 
the Cavies, but with the remark, that in several 
points it essentially differed from them. His 
remarks were taken from the II. Capetisis. 
Cuvier points out the following near resem- 
blance of the skeleton of Hyrax to some of the 
Pachydermes. In the general composition of the 
trunk, there are several alliances ; and one of the 
more remarkable analogies is, that the Hyrax has 
twenty-one ribs on each side, a number greater 
than that of other quadrupeds, the Sloth excepted, 
which has twenty-three ; and those animals, which 
Classification of Quadrupeds, p. 198. 
