Hyrax

“ It departs from the former in the number of the vertebræ and form of the pelvis; but again approaches them in the form of the femora (thigh bones) , and also in the formation of the feet; the toes are four in front and three behind, as in the Tapir, and they are supplied with hoofs, or rounded hoof-like nails. They are without collar-bones (clavicles) . The body of the Hyrax is covered with thick hair, which is here and there beset with bristles, and the tail is represented by a mere tubercle. No remains of the Hyrax have yet been found in a fossil state. ”

“ About fourteen different kinds of hyrax are known, some of which are found in Africa, and the others in Arabia, Syria, and Palestine. They all live in rocky districts high up on the sides of mountains, a great number making their burrows close to one another, just as rabbits do in a warren. They are very active and sure of foot, and scamper up and down the sides of the rocks with the greatest ease. ”

“ It is so crafty that no trap or snare ever set has induced a Hyrax to enter it, and so wary that it is with difficulty to be killed even with the aid of fire-arms. "No animal," writes Mr. Tristram, "ever gave us so much trouble to secure.... The only chance of securing one is to be concealed, particularly about sunset or before sunrise, on some overhanging cliff, taking care not to let the shadow be cast below, and then to wait until the little creatures cautiously peep forth from their holes. ”

“ The earlier forms had the full series of 44 teeth, with the premolars simpler than the molars; but in the later types the canines and some of the incisors disappear, and at least the hinder premolars become molar-like. In all cases the first upper incisors are large and rootless.
That the group originated in Africa there can be no reasonable doubt; and it is remarkable that so early as the Upper Eocene the types in existence differed comparatively little in structure from the modern forms. In fact the hyraxes were then almost as distinct from other mammals as they are at the present day. ”

“ The facial portion of the skull is generally shorter than the cranial; the orbit is freely open behind; and the premaxillae tend to be reduced and fuse with the nasals. Front toes, 3 or 4; hind toes, 3.
The most primitive group is that of the American Hyracodontidae, represented in the Oligocene by Hyrachyus, Hyracodon and Triplopus. With the exception of the first lower premolar, the dentition is complete; the incisors being normal, but the canine rudimentary, and the last upper molar distinctly triangular. The upper molars have a crista and a crochet (fig. 2) . ”

“ Mrs. Herbert Hyrel removed the telovis from her head and laid it carefully aside. She uncoiled her long legs from beneath her, walked to her husband's chair, and stood for a long moment looking down at him, her lips drawn back in contempt. Then she bent over him and reached down his thigh until her fingers contacted the small switch. ”

“ Thorax finely punctured, with the disk of the mesothorax impunctate; wings dark brown with a rich coppery iridescence. Abdomen with a fine prismatic lustre, closely and strongly punctured towards the apex and at the extreme base, the second segment and the middle of the third with only a few very fine scattered punctures.
Hab. Aru.
This species also belongs to the division Liacos; the petiolated cell is small and oblong-quadrate; the male exactly resembles the female, except that its head is smaller and narrower than the thorax; the abdomen is rather more strongly punctured. ”

“ Worker. Length 11⁄2 line. Head and thorax rugose; the antennæ and tarsi rufo-testaceous; the eyes rather prominent, the groove above them at the sides of the head extending backwards to the vertex. Thorax: the anterior margin curved forwards, the lateral angles produced into a bifurcate process on each side, behind the processes, slightly narrowed to the base of a long curved tooth; the posterior margin emarginate with a long sharp spine at each angle of the emargination; the node of the petiole globose. Abdomen black, smooth and shining. ”

“ Know, first, that Hylas has been taken by the nymphs who love him and who think to win his love, and that he will stay forever with them in their cold and glimmering cave. For Hylas seek no more. And to you, Heracles, I will say this: Go aboard the Argo again; the ship will take you to where a great labor awaits you, and which, in accomplishing, you will work out the will of Zeus. You will know what this labor is when a spirit seizes on you. ”

“ Warning, Ihelos! There is an Earthman among you at work as a spy for Thrayx! I am a captive.
Over and over, the same words, the same thought images which they formed; of Cain, of this hell-planetoid itself.
The orange glow pulsated as though itself alive with the desperation of her signal. And she heard the guard barely in time. ”

“ Round-up Dick was there. We would have been most unlikely to go to No Wood Draw, and if I had not met our cowboy friend that specimen of Hyrachyus might have been lost to science forever.”
“I hope I have that same Midas touch everywhere!” the lad rejoined, exultantly.
“Perhaps yes, perhaps no,” the other warned him. “If you find specimens too easily, you will be disappointed when the months go by and you discover nothing. I was very lucky on my second day here, but I have not seen a single good [Pg 307] specimen for the last two weeks and we are in the heart of the fossil country.” ”

“ He hit Hiram so hard over the head with the piece of dragon that he knocked a hole in the papier-mâché, and, just as Hiram freed himself of the encumbrance, and straightened up to get his bearings and swoop down on his assailant, an egg smashed in his face and effectually blinded him. ”

“ Fabr. Ent. Syst. 2. 53. Serville Revis. Orthopt. p. 92. (Acryd. t.)
Gryllus americanus, Drury, App. vol. 2.
Habitat: Virginia, Antigua, New York, Madras, and Sierra Leone (Drury) . "Tartaria et Africa." (Linn.)
Head striped with dark and light brown. Eyes oblong. Thorax dark brown; having a light brown stripe running along it from the front of the head, which, when the wings are closed, is continued along the margin of the tegmina; on the sides it is light brown, and margined beneath with stripes and spots of dark buff. Antennæ thread-like, and about the length of the thorax. ”

“ Hyrcanus, when the matter came to his ears, was indifferent. Not so the Jewish leaders. The sight of Herod—violent, audacious and hankering after autocratic power [97] —filled them with alarm. So they approached Hyrcanus and now openly accused Antipater. “How much longer,” they said, “will you remain unmoved by what is happening? ”

“ Hiresgas and his fellows burst amongst the Medians with lowered lances and covering shields. They slew many, and flung many others from their saddles. They rode over the fallen, trampling them beneath the hoofs of the horses, till they reached the very cohort of that king who had slain Sir Bedevere. Mounted on strong destriers the bold vassals followed after Hiresgas, wheeling to right or left, as he led, till they pierced to the gonfalon, showing the arms of the king. Hiresgas spied his foe. He turned his horse, and pushing through the press, drew near, and smote Bocus full on the helm. ”

“ In Hyrachyus agrarius the skull is long and narrow, the facial region being markedly longer than in existing Rhinoceroses. The mastoid portion of the periotic bone is widely exposed upon the outer face of the skull, which is, as has been said, not the case with the existing genus Rhinoceros. The dentition is the complete Eutherian dentition of forty-four teeth. The upper molar teeth are strikingly like those of the genus Rhinoceros. The fore-feet are pentadactyle, but functionally tetradactyle ”

“ You may always know Hercules in pictures and statues by his knotted club and his lion-skin.
It was easy enough to find the Hydra—only too easy. It had its nest in a foul stagnant swamp, the air of which its breath turned to poison. Giving Iolas his other arms to hold, Hercules attacked the Hydra with his club alone, trusting to his lion-skin to receive the strokes of the creature’s fangs. With a tremendous blow he crushed one of the Hydra’s hundred heads, leaving ninety-nine more to destroy if he could hold out so long. ”

“ Most of the crew who worked in overalls, with bodies bared above the waist, black and grimy to the tousled hair now matted with sweat, laid carelessly about as in death from convulsions. In some cases they were in such a position that the fierce light from the cracks in the furnace doors gave their faces a weird, deathly appearance, and after noting this, I glanced at Hiram and saw that he, too, had succumbed, his head resting heavily against the supporting bulkhead. ”

“ Heracles went out to do the thankless tasks which his master Eurystheus had bidden him do. In the swamps of Lerna, he slew the nine-headed Hydra, and dipped his arrows in its poisonous blood. In the forests of Arcadia, he caught the brazen-footed stag sacred to Artemis. In the snowy glens of Erymanthus, he hunted the fierce wild boar which had long been the terror of men; and, having caught him in a net, he carried him to Mycenæ. In Elis he cleansed the stables of Augeas, turning the waters of the river Alpheus into the stalls of his oxen. ”

“ The thorax is obscurely hexagonal, with the hinder margin prominent and rounded; the head as broad as the broadest part of the thorax; the eyes are rather oblong, without the least tendency to converge behind; the hinder pair of legs not more ciliated than the others, but are terminated by very strong and distinct claws; tips of the elytra acuminated and entire. ”

“ Thorax margined, lying very high above the head, having protuberances in front, which in some are very faint, and with a small impression on each side near the margin on the lower part. Elytra longer than the thorax, margined and furrowed, (but not so deeply as in Fig. I.) , and reaching to the anus. General colour deep black, and shining like pitch, both on the upper and under sides. Thighs very strong, not hairy. The anterior tibiæ strong, with four teeth, and a strong spine to each. The tarsi and ungues very small. The other tibiæ are like those in the preceding figure. Scutellum obsolete. ”

“ However, this prosperous state of affairs moved the Jews to envy Hyrcanus; but they that were the worst disposed to him were the Pharisees, (28) who were one of the sects of the Jews, as we have informed you already. These have so great a power over the multitude, that when they say any thing against the king, or against the high priest, they are presently believed. Now Hyrcanus was a disciple of theirs, and greatly beloved by them. ”

“ Thorax not peculiarly formed.—In the characteristic forms of this family the front of the vertex bears a suture, touched on each side by one at right angles to it, or converging to it so as to form a triangle or a sort of embrasure; the hind tibiae have only one to three strong spines. The Cercopidae are much less extraordinary than many of the previously considered families. But some of them have the habit of secreting a large quantity of fluid ”

“ At three o'clock in the morning, the church opened for matins; Hiraux was still in the same place, as still as though he were dead. He had come to his senses; but, although he found the catafalque in its place, he dared not stir for fear it would move again.
The sacristan brother hearing himself called in a stifled voice, turned to see where it came from, and found Hiraux with his face to the ground, icily cold and bathed in perspiration at the same time. ”

“ The destruction of this Lernaean hydra was one of the twelve “labours” of Heracles, which he accomplished with the assistance of Iolaus. Finding that as soon as one head was cut off two grew up in its place, they burnt out the roots with firebrands, and at last severed the immortal head from the body, and buried it under a mighty block of rock. The arrows dipped by Heracles in the poisonous blood or gall of the monster ever afterwards inflicted fatal wounds. ”

“ Thorax sprinkled with white pubescence above, the sides more thickly clothed with the same; above, the thorax is transversely rugose, on the metathorax becoming more regularly striate; the metathorax has a central longitudinal carina and also one on each side; the legs sprinkled with erect white hairs; the tarsi pale rufo-testaceous with the claw-joint black; wings subhyaline, with a broad light-fuscous stain along the centre of the anterior pair; a hyaline streak crosses them at the base of the stigma. Abdomen: the petiole as long as the thorax, narrowest at the base of the abdomen ”

“ Kriijorl's face was tilted upward, and in the faint glow of the planetesimal belt that girdled Thrayx, it seemed more than ever that of an heroic Viking king of ages gone.
"There's a chance he hasn't!" Mason breathed. He had the thought now, pinned down, clear in his head. "If there has been no alarm back at our own camp we may still have the mentacom to ourselves. We'll signal Ihelos as you planned and then—then there is something else you will say. Something else that I think will, as the saying goes on Earth, kill two birds with a single blast." ”

“ Hyrel chuckled. The situation struck him as being funny: the shadowy self got drunk and had a good time, and the outer husk suffered the hangover in the morning. Strange. Strange how a device such as the telporter suit could cause the shadow of each bodily cell to leave the body, materialize, and become a reality in its own right. ”