98 



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Tlie Baron Cuvier does not take any notice of the genus Acanthion 

 in the second edition of the ' Rėgne Animal' (i. 215), but merely 

 observes that the Indian and African species have their heads less 

 swolien ; but he formed for the f asciculated Porciipine (^H. fasciculatd) 

 a genus under the name of Atherura, characterized by the muzzle 

 not being swollen, and the tail elongated and not prehensile. Some 

 authors, as Fischer (Synopsis Mam. i. 267, ii. 602), have considered 

 this animal as the one on which F. Cuvier established his genus 

 Acanthion. See on this subject the excellent remarks of Mr. Bennett 

 on the gardens and raenageries of the Zoological Society, i. 176. 



J. F. Brandt. in the ' Mėmoires de l'Acadėmie Imperiale des Sci- 

 ences de Saint Petersbourg' for 183.5, on the Rodent in the mu- 

 seum of that Academy, has also overlooked M. F. Cuvier's genus, 

 and he observes, "The genus Acanthion of F. Cuvier I add to the 

 genus Hystrix, on account of the resemblance of the cranium of 

 H. hernitorostris with that of Acanthion Daubentonii. G. Cuvier, 

 although he proposed the new genus Atherura, does not say a \vord 

 respecting ^canMiOrt in the new edition of the ' Regne Animal' ; and 

 I should almost conclude from his \vords under the genus Hystrix 

 (i. 215), — ' there are (in the genus Hystrix) species with the head 

 less s\vollen ;' that he himself regarded the ąuotation Acanthion and 

 Hystrix as one and the šame." — Meni. Acad, Petersb. 1835, 267, 

 uote. 



I may here remark, that the skuU figured by M. F. Cuvier as that 

 of the Italian Porcupine does not agree with our specimen of the skuU 

 of the European species, and belongs to •what I have considered the 

 genus Acajithion, as I keep the name of Hystrix for the old Linnaean 

 species H. cristata : that the skuU figured by Brandt as a new species, 

 under the name of Hystrix hfriitorostris, does agree with our speci- 

 men from Xanthus, \vhich I regard as the European species ; and 

 though he compares it in the note above ąuoted with F. Cuvier's 

 figure of the genus Acanthion, it difFers from that figure in most im- 

 portant characters ; while the skull -vvhich Brandt figures for that of 

 Hystrix cristata very nearly resembles F. Cuvier's figure above re- 

 ferred to, which represents, according to the characters pointed out 

 in this communication, what I regard as the genus Acanthion. 



Having had the opportunity of comparing the various škulis and 

 skeletons of the species of this genus contained in the British Mu- 

 seum \vith the škulis of the Indian species in the coUection of Colonel 

 Cautley, and with the three škulis in the collections of the Zoological 

 Society, I have been induced to make the foUovving communication 

 to the Meeting, as containing the results of this examination, and 

 ■with the hope of calling the attention of the Merabers to the neces- 

 sity of further attention to this hitherto neglected genus. These 

 škulis form themselves into three groups, and that I may not encum- 

 ber science with new names, I have used the three already proposed 

 by the brothers Cuvier, though the characters I have given for the 

 genus Acanthion may not be such as M. F. Cuvier had in his mind 

 when he formed the division. 



