206 TRICHYS FASCICULATA. 



in 1777; he said that the species was characterized »sur- 

 tout par la forme et la longueur de la queue; elle est 

 termiuee par un bouquet de polls longs et plats, ou plutot 

 de petits lanières blanches semblables a des rognures de 

 parche'min'\ ^) 



Both species are from the Indian Continent and the E. I. 

 Archipelago. A third long tailed tufted Porcupine lives in 

 Africa ; the latter , called africana by Gray , has the tail 

 like macroura , viz. : » with a tuft of quills , consisting each 

 of a long slender stem , swelling out at intervals into 

 knots resembling grains of rice". 



When studying the tail of the three species by the aid of 

 a lens, we find that the short spiny hairs with which it 

 is covered present the following peculiarities : 



in macroura each stout spiny hair is flanked by tioo 

 longer less spiny hairs or bristles ; 



in africana each long spiny hair is flanked by two much 

 shorter spiny hairs or bristles ; in both species therefore 

 the number of the hairs is equal to three times the number 

 of scales ^) , as is generally to be found on the tails of 

 the other Rodents , with a few exceptions ^) ; 



in fasciculata, however, there is only one rather short 

 spiny hair protruding from the top of each rhombic scale 

 (one of the few exceptions from the just now mentioned rule). 



It may be observed] that the skull of africana agrees 

 much more with that part of macroura than of fascicidata: 

 so that considering all these differences we are inclined to 

 bring the three species under two heads , viz. : macroura 

 together with africana, and the very different fasciculata 

 in a separate genus. 



Cuvier was the first author , who separated the long- 

 tailed old-world-Porcupine from the short-tailed Hystrix- 



1) I italicize. 



2) See ray paper on Mus Armandvillei in Max Weber's Zool. Ergebn. Bd. 

 Ill, Heft I, 1893, p. 81. 



3) See J. C. H. de Meijere. Ueber die Haare der Saugethiere. Morph. Jahr- 

 büch. Bd. XXI, 1894, Heft 3. 



Notes from the Leyden IVEuseTiiii , Vol. XVI. 



