66 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I. The Porcupine of Tenasserim and Southern Siam. 



By Oldfield Thomas, f. z. s. 



[From Tlie Annals and M.njrnzine fif Natural History, Series 8, Vol. 17, 

 No. 97, January 1916, pp. 136-13'.)]. 



The National Museum owes to Mr. C Boclen Kloss a first 

 typical set of the fine collection of mammals from S.E. Siam, of which 

 lie has been giving an account to the Zoological Society. Among these 

 there is a Porcupine, which for want of material for comparison he lias 

 asked me to work out for him, and I liave at the same time examined 

 the other specimens that the Jluseum contains from the same region. 



Porcupines from the Burma-Siam area have been sometimes re- 

 ferred to Acanthion hrachi/urus, Linn., and sometimes to A, heiKjalensis, 

 Blytli, the latter being unfortunately an animal of which no one seems 

 to have modern specimens available for compai'ison. 



In his orginal account Blyth says of it " general colour as in 

 A. hodgsoni; the quills generall}' having the basal half white, the rest 

 black, most of them wifh a white tip more or less developed." This 

 description no one would apply to the more southern animal under 

 notice, for in them the black ring on the quills is in length onlj'' 

 from one-third to one-fifth of the white tip, whereas Blyth's account 

 obviously suggests that the greater part of the terminal half of the quill 

 is black, and only just the tip white. This latter condition is found in 

 A. hodi/soni, and would fulfil his statement as to the general colour. 

 Possibly, indeed, liewjalensis is not distinct from li.otljsoni, but this 

 must be settled later. 



A. henijalens'is being thus eliminated, all the porcupines in 

 question — those of Burma, Siam, and the Malay Peninsula — are prac- 

 tically identical externally, with a small brown and white crest, greater 

 than in hodjsoni, far smaller than in leacuriis, and have the main 

 bod3'-s])ines buflfy white, with a median blackish ring. The nuchal 

 crest is rather less developed in the Malaj' animal, but the diflerence is 

 not great. 



In the skulls, however, I find that two forms are i-eadily dis- 

 tinguishable^tho one from the Malay Peninsula (true hrai-lii/i(rii.s) and 

 the other from Tenasserim and Siam. These maj' be diagnosed as 

 follows : — 



Acanthion liRACiiYuiui.s, Linn. 



Syn. A. r/rolei, Gray f. 



fit is useless to try and allocate drny'^ nnniop. J/iiiiini/i nnd iMirtldli, 

 based on specimens of doubtful locality and asserted to be niena^'crie iiyl)ri(ls. 



JOUUN. NAT. .III.ST. SOC. .SIAM. 



