MAMMOTH (Restored).
Remains of other extinct species of Elephants are found; one, which is of exceedingly small stature, standing not much higher than from two and a half to three feet, has been discovered in the bone-caves of Malta. The genus MASTODON, which in many respects resembles the true Elephants, differs from them in the formation of the teeth, the grinders being much simpler, more tubercular, and with crowns free from cement. In most cases, also, there were two small tusks in the lower jaw, as well as those in the upper. In Europe they appear in the Miocene and Pliocene strata, and in America they survived into the Pleistocene. The most extraordinary-looking, perhaps, of the fossil Proboscidea, and that furthest removed from the living Elephants, is the DINOTHERIUM, of the Miocene age. It possessed no tusks in the upper jaw, but its lower jaw was armed with two long curved tusks, projecting downwards. It probably possessed the habits of the Elephant, and these tusks may have been used for uprooting trees, or hooking down boughs, so as to obtain the leaves and shoots for food.
W. BOYD DAWKINS.
H. W. OAKLEY.
ORDER HYRACOIDEA (CONIES).
What is the Coney?—Mention in the Bible—General Appearance—Real Place—Range—Varieties—Coney of the Bible—Cape Coney—Ashkoko of Abyssinia—Mr. Winwood Reade’s Account of the Habits of the Cape Coney—Skull, Dentition, Ribs, &c.
THE order of animals known to naturalists as Hyracoidea (derived from the Greek ὕραξ, a Shrew, and εἶδος, form) contains but one genus, called Hyrax. Belonging to this genus are but two or three species of small animals, which, however, are of considerable interest, both from their peculiar organisation, and from their mention four times in the Bible under the name of Shaphan, improperly translated Coney, which has given rise to considerable controversy, as to what animal was meant. Some persons considered, and naturally enough, that Coney meant nothing more or less than the Rabbit; but now no doubt exists, as has been shown from its characters and habits, that the animal referred to is the Daman, or Hyrax syriacus.
The following are the passages literally rendered, in which the Hyrax is mentioned in the Bible: “Likewise the Coney, because he cheweth the cud, and divideth not the hoof; he shall be unclean unto you” (Leviticus xi. 5). “But these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, and of them that divide and cleave the hoof only; the Camel, nor the Hare, nor the Coney; for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they shall be unclean unto you” (Deuteronomy xiv. 7). “The high mountains are for the Goats; the rocks are a refuge for the Conies” (Psalms civ. 18). “The Conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks” (Proverbs xxx. 26). With regard to the first passage, although the Hyrax certainly does not chew the cud, the peculiar way in which it moves its jaws, as it sits perched in a ruminating manner, so to speak, on some ledge of rock, would naturally suggest to the ignorant that it really was chewing the cud. In the third quotation, we read “the rocks are a refuge for the Conies.” This exactly suits the Hyrax, which is always found inhabiting rocky situations. The last extract also agrees with the known habits of the Hyrax. Here it is alluded to as being one of the four animals on earth who are small, but very wise. These four are the Ant, the Locust, the Spider, and the Coney. All travellers who have noticed the Hyrax are agreed that it is a most wary and crafty animal, and that the utmost caution is required even to obtain a view of it; and to kill one requires a most skilful and practised sportsman.
The Hyrax is a little animal clothed with a brownish fur, of about the size of an ordinary Rabbit, to which, indeed, it has some resemblance. It is allied to the Rhinoceros, the Tapir, and Rodents; but the whole form of the skeleton approaches more nearly to that of the two former than it does to any known species of the latter. Linnæus, however, and other authors, classed it with the Rodents; but Cuvier, seeing that it more nearly approached the characters of the old group of animals called Pachydermata (thick-skinned animals), placed it with them. Now, however, it is assigned by Prof. Huxley to an order of its own named Hyracoidea; but it still is a doubtful question as to what should be done with it.