Dr. P. L. Sclater on a new Indian Porcupine. 207 



minutis obsito : colore corporis antici purpurascenti-rubro, 

 spinis ad basin aurantiacis, inde ad apicem purpurascenti- 

 nigris : spinis dorsi elongatis, aliis aurantiaco-rubro et nigro, 

 aliis, sicut in specie vulgari, a/bo et nigro annul atis : dorsi 

 postici linea mediali distincta, e spinis aliis albis, aliis auran- 

 tiucis composita : cauda longa, spi?iis aliis albis, aliis auran- 

 tiaco-rubris. 

 Long, tota a rostro ad basin caudse 28*0 poll., caudse 8'0. 

 Hub. India Meridionalis, prov. Cochin. 



Obs. Affinis H. leucurce, sed spinarum colore, rostro minus 

 setoso, et cauda longiore distinguenda. 



Although the general external appearance of this Porcupine is re- 

 markably different from that of H. leucura, so that the living animal 

 strikes one at the first glance as being undoubtedly distinct, I have 

 been somewhat disappointed, on comparing the two skins together, to 

 find how difficult it is to detect any very decided differences in their 

 structure. The muzzle in the present specimen of H. malabarica 

 (which is the only individual I have been able to examine) seems to 

 be decidedly less clothed with hair than in H. leucura. This is one 

 of the few points in which H. leucura differs externally from H. 

 cristata, and in this respect the present specimen seems more like 

 H. cristata. The whole of the short spines and hairs of the anterior 

 portion of the body in H. malabarica are dark reddish orange at 

 their bases, growing into purplish brown at their tips ; and the same 

 is the case with those of the flanks and legs. The elongated spines 

 of the middle of the back are some of them black, annulated with 

 white, just as in 77. leucura ; others, more especially towards the sides, 

 where these latter rather predominate, have the white replaced by a 

 bright orange-red. The medial line of the rump is well defined, as 

 in H. leucura ; but the white spines are mixed with others wholly 

 orange. This is likewise the case with the spines round the base of 

 the strong spines which terminate the tail : some of these are wholly 

 white, and some wholly orange. The strong spines which surround 

 the tail, and extend beyond its extremity, are mostly wholly white, 

 with some wholly orange intermixed. In the centre of these are 

 about twelve of the singular hollow truncated quills mounted on pe- 

 dicels, just as in H. leucura and H. cristata*. About one-fourth 

 part of these abnormal quills are orange ; the others are white. 



As the cranial characters of the species of Hystrix are generally 

 very well marked, and indeed the only test by which the species can 

 be certainly distinguished, I was in hopes of finding in the cranium 

 of Hystrix malabarica some more certain evidence of its real distinct- 

 ness from H. leucura. I have therefore carefully compared the skull 

 of the new species with a fine series of six skulls of H. leucura in the 

 British Museum f, in doing which I have received the valuable as- 



* I am not aware whether any explanation has ever been given of the use of 

 these curious quills. My impression is that they serve to act as a rattle, which is 

 thus formed, as in the Rattle-Snakes (Crotalus), by a cutaneous development at 

 the end of the tail. 



t H. cristata and //. leucurus of the ' Catalogue of the Bones of Mammalia in 

 the British Museum ' (1862), p. 191. 



