A PRIMITIVE UNGULATE 
THE CONEY OR DASJE 
The name coney is familiar enough, principally be- 
cause it occurs in the Psalms: but Dasje is not so 
familiar, and when made use of is usually and inaccur- 
ately spelt “ dassie.”” The word in fact is analogous 
to “ kopje,” about which we used to hear so much a 
few years ago, and is a diminutive, in this case froma 
word signifying badger. Neither coney nor dasje is 
at all indicative of the real nature of this most interest- 
ing animal, Hyvax (or Procavia) capensis. Ithas nothing 
whatever to do with either rabbits or badgers ; and is 
in fact, an ungulate animal not directly related to any 
living form nor indeed, so far as present knowledge leads, 
to any extinct form, but none the less a true ungulate. 
Even its outward form, when rightly considered, be- 
trays the ungulate. The nails on the feet are rather 
hoofs than claws; the fingers and toes are reduced 
to four on the front limbs and three on the hind limbs, 
such a reduction being a common feature of the ungu- 
lata. The scalpel at once settles the point. For there 
is no collar bone, and a portion of the shoulder blade 
known as the acromion is absent, while the molar teeth 
have a pattern which is decidedly like that of the 
rhinoceros. They have, however, undoubtedly a like- 
ness to rodents. To this contributes the small size 
(for modern ungulates are unusually big), the much 
reduced tail, and the squatting attitude generally 
adopted. So impressed was de Buffon with these 
matters that he wrote of the hyrax under the name of 
‘““Marmotte du Cap.” As the Psalmist rightly says, 
“ The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats and the 
rocks for the coneys.” This is, doubtless, one of the 
earliest allusions to the coney. They are spoken of, as 
everyone knows, in other parts of the Scriptures as 
“a feeble folk,’ though “exceeding wise.’ But to 
