248 MAMMALS. 



and St. Lucia. None are found to the west of the Andes. A very complete account of the 

 anatomy of one of this family (Dasyprocta cristata), will be found in a valuable paper by Dr. 

 Mui'ie, lately read before the Zoological Society.* 



Porcupines (Hystricina). (Map 76.) — The Porcupines are rather a versatile race; some are 

 terrestrial and some arboreal, — some burrowing and others climbing, — some lucifugous and some 

 luciphilous, — some of them are Old-world and some of them New- world species. The Old-world 

 kinds are terrestrial, burrowing animals ; the New-world arboreal, climbing, prehensile-tailed 

 creatures ; and they are characterized, moreover, by two different tj'pes of structure, one haidng 

 five toes, the other only four, on their fore-feet ; one having special adaptations of the foot for 

 burrowing, and another of the foot and tail for climbing ; the molar teeth being rooted in the one, 

 semi-rooted in the other ; and there being differences in their dentition and other points. 



Tree Porcupines (Cercolabes). The chief district inhabited by the Tree Porcupines is the north 

 of Brazil. They also live in Guiana and Surinam, and some of the West Indian Islands ; but I can 

 find no notice of their being found in the south of Brazil. They reach the Andes, for a specimen 

 of one was taken by Tschudi in Peru, on the eastern side of the Cordilleras ; but it must be rare 

 there, for his Indians did not know it. Specimens have also been procured from Bolivia, east of 

 the Andes. A sfiecies is like'W'ise found on the east coast of Mexico. The family is represented in 

 North America by the genus Erethizon, which is clearly a branch of the South- American form, 

 although its tail is thicker and stouter, and not prehensile. It extends from Mexico to the 

 Arctic Circle, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two species belong to it, one of which inhabits 

 the east side of the continent, and the other (nearly allied, but still distinct) the west, the Missouri 

 region being the dividing line. The white-haired Porcupine (E. dorsatus) is found on the east, 

 and the yeUow-haired Porcupine, E. epixanthx's, on the west. 



Fossil species of the Tree Porcupine have been found by Dr. Lund in the bone-caves of Brazil, 

 and in caves at Minas Geraes. 



Ground Porcupines. (Hystrix.) The Ground or Burrowing Porcupine is confined to the Old 

 World. The commonest species (H. cristata) is foimd in the south of Europe and north of Africa, 

 extending southwards to the Gambia, along the west coast of Africa, where it meets, and is replaced 

 by another species (Hystrix Africana). Another African species has been found by Dr. Peters 

 in South Africa. Three or four species are foimd in India and the Malayan Peninsida ; in Java, 

 Sumatra, and Borneo, and probably other islands of the Indian Archipelago. Tlie commonest 

 species, next to the European, is the Asiatic, H. hirsutirostris, which meets the former in Asia 

 Minor and Syria, and ranges eastward through Persia and Affghanistan to Continental India. 



Falconer and Cautley found remains of species of the Porcupine in the Miocene Sevalik 

 formations ; and Cuvier refers a tooth which was found in the Val d'Arno to this genus. 



* MURIE in " Proc. Zool. Soc." March 1866. 



