Zoological Society. 351 



tip. The upper part of the intermaxillary wider than the width of 

 the nasal. Skull very convex and wide, the palate wider than the 

 width of the teeth. 



Inhab. South Europe and Africa. 



The spines are described from a specimen from South Africa, pre- 

 sented to the Museum by Dr. W. Burchell, and the skull, from that 

 of an Italian specimen, received from a menagerie, and a young 

 skull with only three grinders, brought from Xanthus and presented 

 to the British Museum by G. Scharff, Esq. 



The skull figured by Brandt, Mem. Acad. Petersb. 1835, t. 8. f. 3, 

 4, 5, 6, as that of his Hystrix hirsutirosiris, well represents the skull 

 of the young H. cristata from Xanthus. 



The skull of the Italian porcupine figured by F. Cuvier, and of 

 H. cristata figured by Brandt, do not belong to the species above 

 described. 



2. Hystrix leucurus, Sykes, Proc. Zool. Soc, (Indian Porcupine) . 

 Hystrix cristata, Bennett, Gard. &;Menag. Zool. Soc. 171 : fig. good. 



Black ; spines of the throat white-tipped (forming a half-collar) ; 

 of the sides rigid, angular, of the back very long, slender, with 

 several black rings, and a very long, slender, white tip. Skull elon- 

 gate, rather narrow ; the hinder part of the intermaxillary as wide as 

 the nasal. The palate narrow, not wider than the width of the teeth. 



Inhab. Bombay. Dukhun, Colonel Sykes. Nepal, B. H. Hodgson, 

 Esq., N. India. 



The above description is taken from two adult and one young spe- 

 cimens in the British Museum, — one presented by Colonel Sykes and 

 the others by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., — two skulls from Mr. Hodgson's 

 specimens, three skulls from Colonel Cautley's collection, and a skull 

 in the museum of the Zoological Society. 



The young skull, which has three well-developed and worn grind- 

 ers, is the same length as the young skull of H. cristata from Xan- 

 thus, which has the third grinder partly developed. The Nepal skull 

 is much less swollen, less convex above, and nearly one-third nar- 

 rower, and the teeth are smaller, occupying about one-fourth less 

 space than the three teeth in the European skull. 



I may observe, that though these skulls preserve a very distinct 

 character, yet they vary so much amongst themselves as to show 

 that skulls afford no better character for the distinction of species 

 than any other single character, such as colour, but can only be 

 depended on when taken in connexion with the rest of the organi- 

 zation. 



In Colonel Cautley's collection there are three adult skulls (nos. 32, 

 34, 35) of this species from Northern India ; they agree nearly in 

 size and in the comparative width of the intermaxillary and nasal 

 bones ; one differs from the other two considerably in the width be- 

 tween the orbits, and slightly in the convexity of the frontal line. 

 They are all much larger than Mr. Hodgson's specimen from Nepal. 



No. 34 is peculiar for having a fifth grinder appearing behind the 

 fourth on the left side above. 



This species is easily known by the very elongate slender spines 



