Porcupine of Tenassenm and Southern Siam. 137 



times referred to Acanthion hrachyurus *, Linn., and some- 

 times to A. bengalensisj Blytb, the latter being unfortunately 

 an animal of wliicli no one seems to have modern specimens 

 available for comparison. 



Ill his original account Blyth says of it " general colour as 

 in A. Jiodgsoni ; the quills generally having the basal half 

 white, the rest black, most of them with a white tip more or 

 less developed." Tliis description no one would apply to 

 the' more southern animals under notice, for in them the 

 black ring on the quills is in length only from one-third to 

 one- fifth of the white tip, whereas Blyth's account obviously 

 suggests tiiat the greater part of the terminal half of the 

 quill is black, and only just the tip white. This latter con- 

 dition is found in A. hodgsoni, and would fultil his statement 

 as to the general colour. Possibly, indeed, hengalensis is not 

 distinct from hodgsoni, but this must be settled later. 



A. bengalensis being thus eliminated, all the porcupines in 

 question — those of Burma, Siam, and the Malay Peninsula — 

 are practically identical externally, with a small brown and 

 white crest, greater than in hodgsoni, far smaller than in 

 leucurus, and liave the main body-s[)ines buffy white, with a 

 median blackish ring. The nuchal crest is rather less deve- 

 loped in the Malay animal, but the difference is not great. 



In the skulls, however, I find that two forms are readily 

 distinguishable — the one from the Malay Peninsula (true 

 hrachyurus) and the other from Tenasserim and Siam. 

 These may be diagnosed as follows: — 



Acanthion hrachyurus, Linn. 

 Syn. A. grotei, Gray t. 



Size smaller, condylo-incisive length less than 130 mm. (see 

 table of measurements on p. 138). Nasals comparatively 

 small and frontals correspondingly large, the length of the 

 frontal suture over 55 per cent, of that of the nasals. Supra- 

 orbital edges tending to the development of a fairly definite 

 po.storbital process. Size of teeth and other proportions as 

 indicated by the measurements. 



A good figure of the skull of this porcupine has been given 

 by Bonhote J. 



* There is a curiously widespread idea that every word ending in -07i 

 is neuter ; but the majority of Greek substantives ending in -mv are mas- 

 culine, and it is only the adjectival ending -6v which is necessarily neuter. 



t It is useless to try and allocate Gray's names Jiemhuji and bartletti, 

 based on specimens of doubtful locality and asserted to be menagerie 

 hybrids. 



J Fascic. Malay, i. pi. iii. ( I'JOoJ. 



