HYSTRIX PREHENSILIS AND H. BRANDTII, 93 



NOTE XXII. 



ON A NEW PORCUPINE FROM SOUTH-AMERICA. 



BY 



Dr. P. A. JENTINK. 



February 1879. 



Cuvier ') figured the skull of Hystrix prehensilis, and 

 afterwards Brandt ^) gave figures of the same species. 

 On comparing these figures it strikes one that great diffe- 

 rences exist between these figures , and the questions arise : 

 has either of the two authors perhaps figured a skull of 

 another species sub nomine H. prehensilis ? which is the 

 true H. prehensilis? 



In our Museum I found three stufi'ed specimens and three 

 skeletons labelled H. prehensilis : two skeletons were col- 

 lected at Surinam by Dieperink in the year 1835; they 

 agree in all details ; the third skeleton we took out of a 

 specimen , purchased 1877 from the Zoological Gardens at 

 Rotterdam, s n. H. prehensilis. 



In the Surinam skeletons I find the following numbers 

 of vertebrae: dorsales 16 with 15 '/g costae , lumbares 5, 

 sacrales 3 , caudales 32 : in the Rotterdam skeleton on the 

 other hand dorsales 15 with 15 costae, lumbares 7, sacrales 

 3 and caudales 35. 



I find the following differences in the measurements of 

 the skulls which are of the same length — • 91 m. m. 



1) Muséum d'histoire naturelle. 1S22, T. IX, pi. 20 tcr, üg. 3 et 4. 

 3) ISIénioires de rAcadémie impériale des sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg , 

 1835, T. I, pi. IX, fig. 5, 6, 7, 8 et 9. 



Notes from the Leyden IMuseum. 



