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Show 1876.] FEET OF CERTAIN MAMMALS. 527 the smooth perpendicular trunks of which they run up and down with as much security as if their feet were provided with sharp claws. In ' The Heart of Africa ' *, Dr. Schweinfurth has given a most interesting account of the habits of one of the species of this genus. He remarks : - " Abdoo, the controller of Mvolo, was half a naturalist ; as a huntsman he had done service under many Europeans, and had acquired a reputation of being a skilful stuffer of birds. He drew my particular attention to the good sport afforded by the Rock-rabbits as they crept about in tempting proximity to the gate of the Seriba. At the same time he asked if I could account for the wonderful way in which the animals managed to clamber up and down smooth rocks that were almost perpendicular. ' I can't tell,' he said, 'how it is; but when you have shot one of the creatures, and catch hold of it, it sticks to the rock with its feet in its death-struggles, as though it had grown there.' The underpart of the foot is dark and elastic as india-rubber, and has several deeply indented cushions. This arrangement, which no other Mammalia or warmblooded animals seem to possess, enables the creature, by opening and closing the centre cleft, to throw off part of its weight, and to gain a firm hold upon the smooth surface of the stone. The toes are nothing but pads of horny skin without regular nails, the hind foot being alone furnished on the inner toe with one claw, which is sharply compressed. For some time I could not at all comprehend how, with r>uch a plump foot, the Rock-rabbit could climb so safely over precipitous walls of granite, or even along the polished branches of the little trees in the ravines; but the mystery was solved when I tried to pick up an animal which I myself had wounded. The granite was smooth as pavement; and yet, when I seized the creature by the neck, it clung like birdlime to the ground, and required some force before it could be removed." The very peculiar feet of Hyrax were first described by Bruce f; and as his description is the most complete that has been taken from the animal in its native country, I think it necessary to quote it here in full. Of the Askoko of Abyssinia (probably H. abyssinicus) he writes as follows:-" This curious animal is found in Ethiopia, in the caverns of the rocks, or under the great stones in the Mountain of the Sun behind the queen's palace at Koscam. It is also frequent in the deep caverns in the rocks in many other places in Abyssinia. It does not burrow or make holes as the rat and rabbit; nature having interdicted him this practice by furnishing him with feet the toes of which are perfectly round and of a soft pulpy tender substance ; the fleshy parts of the toes project beyond the nails, which are rather broader than sharp, much similar to a man's nails ill grown. 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 (? toes): the middle one is the longest. * Vol. i. p. 385. t ' Travels to discover the Source of the Nile in the years 1768-73,' vol. y. description of pl. 24. |