It is supposed by some that the animal here meant is the giraffe, though others think that a species of goat is intended. It is not the animal called chamois in Switzerland, as that is not found so far south as Syria. The Hebrew word signifies to crop branches, to browse. The giraffe feeds upon the leaves of trees,-of those of

the acacia it is extremely fond,-it seizes them with its long narrow tongue, thus reaching those on branches too high for other animals to get hold of.

"We saw five giraffes (camel-leopards) to day, to my great delight; they were the first I had seen alive, and, notwithstanding my fatigue and the heat, Bellal and myself chased them for half an hour; we kept within about twenty yards of them. They have a very extraordinary appearance from their being so low behind, and move awkwardly, dragging, as it were, their hinder legs after them they are not swift.”

The Sheikh's wife "presented me with two fly-flappers, made of the tail of the camel-leopard."-DENHAM'S Africa.

COCK-CROWING IN THE EAST.

MARK XIV. 30.

"In this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice." (See also ch. xiii. 35.)

"IT has been often remarked, in illustration of Scripture, that in the Eastern countries the cocks crow in the night; but the regularity with which they keep what may be called the watches, has not been, perhaps, sufficiently noticed. I will, however, confine myself to one, and that is between eleven and twelve o'clock. I have often heard the cocks of Smyrna crowing in full chorus at that time, and with scarcely the variation of a minute. The second cock-crowing is between one and two o'clock. Therefore, when our Lord says, 'In this night, before the cock crow twice,' the allusion was clearly to these seasons. In fact, this was altogether so novel to me at my first arrival in Smyrna, that I could calculate the hours of the night with as much precision, by what I termed my alectrometer, as by my watch.”ARUNDEL'S Discoveries in Asia Minor.

"The rocks (are a refuge) for the conies."

PROVERBS XXX. 26.

"The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks."

There is good reason for believing that the animal called coney, in our version of the Scriptures, is the same with that now called wabber, or oueber, in Palestine and other parts. Laborde thus mentions it :- -"Two of our guides set out upon an excursion, their guns on their shoulders, saying, that they would go and hunt the oueber, an animal commonly met with in this part of the mountain. In the course of a few hours they returned, bringing something wrapped up in their cloaks.

We saw by the merriment displayed on their countenances, that they had not been unlucky. They immediately produced four little animals, which they had found in their lair, being the whole of the family, the father and mother, and two young ones a fortnight old. These creatures, who are very lively in their movements, endeavoured to bite when they were caught; their hair is a brown yellow, which becomes pale and long as the animals grow old. In appearance, on account of the great vivacity of their eyes, the head being close to the shoulders, and the buttocks being drawn in, and without a tail, they resemble the guinea-pig. Their legs are all of the same height, but the form of their feet is peculiar; instead of nails or claws, they have three toes in front, and four behind, and they walk like rabbits on the whole length of the foot. The Arabs call it El oueber, and know no other name for it. It is common in this part of the country, and lives upon the scanty herbage with which the rain in the neighbourhood of springs supplies it. It does not burrow in the earth, its feet not being calculated for that purpose; but it conceals itself in the natural holes or clefts which it finds in the rocks."-LABORDE, pp. 114, 115.

"When we were exploring the rocks in the neighbourhood of the convent, I was delighted to point attention to a family or two of the oueber, engaged in their gambols on the heights above us. Mr. Smith and I watched them narrowly, and were much amused with the liveliness of their motions, and the quickness of their retreat within the clefts of the rock when they apprehended danger. We were, we believe, the first European travellers who actually noticed this animal, now universally admitted to be the shaphan, or coney, of Scripture, within the proper bounds of the Holy Land; and we were not a little gratified by its, discovery.... We climbed up to see its nest, which was a hole in the rock, comfortably lined with moss and feathers, answering to the description given of the coney. The specimen thus ob

a

tained, when stuffed, I have had an opportunity of examining in England. The preparer of the skin mistook it for a rabbit, though it is of a stronger build, and of duskier colour, being of a dark brown. It is entirely destitute of a tail, and has some bristles at its mouth, over its head, and down its back, along the course of which there are traces of light and dark shade. In its short ears, small, black, and naked feet, and pointed snout, it resembles the hedge-hog."-WILSON's Lands of the Bible.

CRANE.

ISAIAH XXXviii. 14.

"Like a crane, or a swallow, so did I chatter."

"We shot several cranes, one of a beautiful white, with a yellow beak, and dark hazel eyes, with a yellow rim."-Discoveries in Africa.

CROCODILE, OR ALLIGATOR.

JOB Vii. 12.

"Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me ?"

xli. 1 &c.

"Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?...will he speak soft words unto thee?... Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons ?...his scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them...... In his neck