THE 



ZOOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



The PREHENSILE PORCUPINE, or COENDOU, 



(Synetheres prehensilis, Fr. Cuvier.) 



I HE relations which animals were first observed to bear to 

 one another reposed on general appearances only, on the re- 

 semblance of their outward forms, on the nature of their inte- 

 guments, and, in a word, on the most superficial and obvious 

 organs. Thus the porcupine and the hedgehog, being both 

 covered with a conspicuous defensive armour of spines, were 

 classed together, as being animals whose organization was 

 analogous. They were regarded in this manner by the an- 

 cients ; and in the posthumous volumes of Aldrovandus, pub- 

 lished in the ljth century, we find them thus associated to- 

 gether. The erroneous nature of these approximations was 

 so palpable, that it was detected the instant an attempt was 

 made to classify animals by their natural affinities ; and the 

 porcupine was transferred to the Rodentia, while the hedgehog 

 was left next the shrews. But the porcupine was not the only 

 Rodent which had long spines instead of hairs : other species 

 were found in America, in the East Indies, and in Africa ; and 

 we find Ray, Linnaeus, and the majority of their successors, 

 grouping all these animals in the same genus, under the com- 

 mon appellation of Porcupine (Hystrix). In this approxima- 

 tion they were doubtless influenced, though with some re- 

 strictions, by the same preconception which had guided their 

 predecessors, by that early notion that animals covered with 

 integuments of so remarkable a kind should form a natural 

 group. However, as one of these porcupines had a prehensile 

 tail, M. de Lacepede separated it from the rest, to form the 

 type of a distinct though allied genus. 



These Rodentia, armed at all points by strong and acute 

 spines, — the porcupines mentioned in Travels and Works of 

 natural history, — are already ascertained to be tolerably nu- 

 merous ; but they are far from being all so well known as to 

 enable us to determine their real nature, and mark out their 

 affinities. Those of Italy and Spain are said to have been 

 originally derived from Africa. Porcupines are common in 

 Barbary, Abyssinia, Guinea, and at the Cape of Good Hope : 

 they are met with id Asia Minor, Palestine, and Persia : they 

 exist in all the southern parts of Asia, and the neighbouring 

 islands ; and lastly, South and North America equally produce 

 them. 



Zoo!. Mag. No* 6. M 



