HYSTRIX PREHENSILIS. 95 



must have had before him a skull of the true H. prehen- 

 silis , characterized by having the nasalia less elevated , the 

 frontalia broader and on the vrhole a narrower skull. 



In his "interpretatio" (p. 424) Brandt states that the 

 skull (tab. IX , fig. 5) is "one third" the natural size , it 

 must apparently be "two thirds." 



Hystrix pre hens His auctorum. 



General colour rusty brown. All the quills are yellow- 

 ish near the base ; most of them have a rusty brown ring 

 and a yellowish white tip, never exceeding 13 m. m. in 

 length. The longest quills measure 77 m.m., which agrees 

 very well with the measurements given by Buffon ^) , who 

 states "les plus long piquans sur le corps ont 2 pouces 8 

 lignes =r 73 m.m. " According to Shaw '^) the longest 

 quills measure 77 m. m. (three inches). 



Here and there and principally upon the haunches there 

 are quills without such yellowish white tips ; so these are 

 yellowish white near the base and for the rest rusty 

 brown. The dorsal half of the tail is covered for the 

 greater part with quills of the same nature as those on 

 the back. Towards the point the tail is almost naked. 

 The underside of the tail near the root is covered with 

 strong bristles yellowish white colored, towards the end 

 of the tail they are entirely brown with short yellowish 

 white bases. 



There are a few very long black bristles among the 

 quills of belly and legs. 



The vertebral column consists of 16 vertebrae dorsales, 

 with 15^/2 costae, 5 lumbares, 3 sacrales and 32 caudales. 



I cannot give the measurement of the length of the 

 tail, because the point is wanting. But the number of 

 caudal vertebrae beiug 32 and in H. Brandtii 35 I believe 

 the tail is longer in the latter. Buffon , 1. c. gives the 

 length of the tail of his Coundoe a longue queue 1 pied 



1) Histoire naturelle, suple'ment, T. VII, 1789. p. 125. 



2) General Zoology, mamm. 1801, Vol. II, part. I, p. 7. 



Notes from the Leyden Mliiseiin-i. 



