PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 723 



It is similar in shape, and in its dental characters, to that of Neotoma 

 tloridaiia, from which it diliers only in being rather high in the frontal 

 region, with the zygomatic arches more prominent posteriorly. The 

 live skulls examined have a prominent crest on the basioccipital bone, 

 which is absent in y.Jioridana. The rostral portion of the skull is as 

 longasthatof i\'. //or/r/(f«a, the nasal bones measuring 1*0 mm. in length. 

 The teeth agree closely with those of X. Jlorida.na. 



For the materials used in making these comparisons 1 am indebted 

 to Doctor C. Hart Merriam and the authorities of the United States 

 National .Museum. 



This species i^ named in honor of 3Ir. Jl. P. Attwater, of !San Antonio, 

 Texas. 



ERETHIZON EPIXANTHUS COUESI, new subspecies. 

 ARIZONA I'OL'CrPINK. 



In 1887 I collected a small porcupine in the Mogollon Mountains of 

 central Arizona, which difl'ered in im})ortant respects from both the 

 Canadian porcui)ine {Erethizon dorsaiua) and th<^ Pacific Coast species 

 [Erethizon cpLmnthns)', but owing to the lack of materials for a satis- 

 factory comparison, I abstained from naming the new form. At the 

 present time, owing largely to the ettbrts of Mr. Frederick W. True, 

 curator of the department of mammals, the United States National 

 Museum is possessed of a very respectable series of American porcu- 

 pines from localities extending from Labrador to Pennsylvania in 

 the East, and from Alaska to Arizona in the West. The Arizona porcu- 

 pine differs so widely from E. dorsatus that comparison is unnecessary. 

 E. cpi.raiiihK.s was described by Brandt' from iive si)ecimens from the 

 west coast of North America (California and Unalaska) in the museum 

 at St. Petersburg. The fine series of skins and skulls from Alaska and 

 northern California, collected by Messrs. McKay, Townsend, True, 

 Prentiss, and others, furnish excellent material for comparison of the 

 Arizona form with true Erethizon ejnxanthtis, which latter is a much 

 larger, yellower, and more richly colored animal. 



The name Hystrix pilosus, applied by Doctor Woodhouse to the 

 porcupine of New Mexico, ' is preoccupied by the Hystrix pilos us of 

 Pichardson. * 



For reasons not apparent, Gray's name, Erethizon {Echinoprocta) 

 nifcsvens, based on an animal from ••Columbia," has long figured in our 

 mammalogies as a synonym of Erethizon epixanthus Brandt. 



Having exhausted the list of synonyms without finding a name that 

 can be applied to the Arizona porcupine. I take pleasure in naming it 

 in honor of Doctor Elliott Cones, who collected the tj-pe specimen (No. 

 lUi, U.S.N.M.), at Fort Whipple, Arizona. 



I Mem. Acad. St. Petersburg, 1835, IX, pi. i (animal), figs. 1-4 (skull). 

 - Sitgreaves's Expedition dowu tbe Zufii and Colorado Rivers, 1853, p. 51. 

 •Fauna Boreali-Americana, I, 1829, p. 214. 



