48 HYSTRIOID^. 



bases. A woll-clefinod rufoscent circle round the eyes. General colour 

 of the back greyish, below whitish. The feet are white, the tail is 

 covered with short hairs, and is sharply bicolor, the upper surface being 

 dark brown and the lower white. Soles of feet naked. Pads on forefeet 

 five. On the hind feet the sixth is always^ and the fifth frequently, 

 suppressed. 



Hab. — Sind, Deccan, and Southern India in cultivated fields, living in 

 holes at the roots of bushes or among stone heaps. 



Family, HYSTRICID^. 



4 4 



Molars ^zz^y lower angle of lower jaw acute, terminal portion of 



muzzle clothed with small hairs, the skull with a large ante- orbital 

 opening. 



Sub-family, HYSTRICIN/E,— Porcupines. 



Incisors f , lower truncated ; molars ^^^q, I'ooted, compound ; tongue 



and body covered with spines ; clavicles none ; forefeet tetradactylous 

 with a minute wart for a thumb. 



Hystrix, Lint}. — Temporal and orbital fossse very small, parietal 

 bones depressed, occipital and sagittal crests projecting much, tail short, 

 feet plantigrade, the anterior tetradactyle, the posterior peutadactyle, 

 armed with large nails. 



Hystrix leucura. Suites, P. Z. 8. 1830, myth, Gat p. 128; Jerd. 

 Mam. Ind. p. 219. Serr, Syal, Sinkore, Sind, Hind. — The Indian 



PORCCPINE. 



Muzzle clad with stiff bristly hairs and a few white spines on the 

 face; spines on the throat short-grooved, some with white points form- 

 ing a demi-collar, spines and open tubes on the tail entirely white. 

 Crest full, long, chiefly of black bristles, a few reaching to the inser- 

 tion of the tail, and with long white points ; the largest quills on the 

 back black, many annulated with white at base and middle, and some 

 with white points; long thin quills, mostly white at tip; whiskers, long 

 and black, a few tipped white. 



Length. — Head and body 32*, tail 7", skull 5-25", molars ^— ^ 

 in four Sind specimens. 



Hah. — Sind, the greater part of India, except Bengal, where it is re- 

 placed by H. BenrialensU ; also Burmah and Ceylon, Beloochistau, 

 Persia and Afghanistan. 



H. Gristata, Linn, has been found by Mr. Blanford (Eastern Persia, 

 p. 80) at Jalk (Beloochistau), and not unlikely it will be found in Sind, 

 also on the hills north of Mugger Peer and those separating Sind from 

 Beloochistan. H. cristatus differs from leucura in its general colour, 

 being grizzled dusky black, resulting from a mixture of various shades of 

 white, brown and black. Upper part of the neck and head furnished with 

 a crest of long lighter coloured hairs. The muzzle and limbs are clothed 

 with very short almost black hair. The whitish band on the fore-part 



