ERETHIZONTIDJE. ERETHIZONTINJE. ERETHIZON. 397 



they endeavor to equalize matters by living in high altitudes in the 

 mountains. While the American Porcupines are to a great extent 

 arboreal, yet they are by no means restricted to a life in the trees, 

 and the different species are frequently met with traveling on the 

 ground, and in the western part of the United States it is not uncom- 

 mon to find the Porcupine out on the prairie far from any timber. 

 They are inoffensive animals when unmolested, but disagreeable 

 creatures to handle or meddle with by either man or dog. 



Fam. VII. Erethizoiiticlfe. 



Form stout; long acute spines loosely attached to skin. Skull 

 with facial portion short, and the jugal without inferior angle; 

 molars more or less completely rooted. 



Subfam. I. ErethizontinsB. 

 79. r.n-t hi/mi. Long-spiiied Porcupines. 



Erethizon F. Cuv., Mm. du Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, ix, 1822, p. 426. 



Type Hystrix dorsatus Linnaeus. 



Eucritus Fisch., Mem. Soc. Imp. Moscow, v, 1817, pp. 372, 411. 

 Echinothrix Brookes, Cat. Anat. Zool., 1828, Id. Trans. Linn. Soc. 



Lond., xvi, 1829, pt. i, p. 97. 

 Echinoprocta Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1865, pp. 321-322 desc. 



Four toes on fore feet, five on hind feet, all with strong claws; 

 limbs short, strong; no naked mesial line on upper lip, which is 

 covered with hair and notched above the incisors; tail short, thick, 

 non-prehensile, covered above with stiff hairs and spines, and on the 

 sides and beneath with stiff bristles. 



415. epixanthum (Erethizon}, Brandt, Me*m. Acad. Imp. Scien., 

 St. Petersb., 6th Ser., 1835, p. 390, pi. i, 9. Elliot, Syn. N. 

 Am. Mamm., 1901, p. 265. 

 pilosus. Peale (nee Rich.), U. S. Expl. Exped., Mamm., 1848, 



p. 46. 

 WESTERN PORCUPINE. 



Type locality. California? Unalaska? 



Geogr. Distr. State of Sonora, Mexico, into New Mexico, east- 

 ward to Missouri, west to the Pacific, and north to Alaska and the 

 limit of trees. 



Genl. Char. Light tips of long hairs of dorsal surface greenish 

 yellow. Average length of nasals exceed interorbital breadth, or over 



