XV BRUSH-TAILED PORCUPINE 501 
least promulgating, this legend, which has even grown so in the 
telling that the quills are said to be capable of penetrating planks 
of wood. What Buffon said apropos of this matter is, “The 
marvellous commonly is pleasingly believed, and increases in 
proportion to the number of hands it passes through.” It is of 
course the rattling of the spines and the occasional falling out of 
loose ones which has started the legend. They are, however, 
excellent weapons of offence, and the animal charges somewhat 
backwards to make the best use of them against the foe. The 
spines, however, are by no means an absolute protection, since, as 
Mr. Ridley informs us,’ Tigers will kill and eat these animals just 
as the Thylacine is apparently indifferent to the spiny armature 
of Eehidna. 
Of the Brush-tail Porcupine, Atherura, there are at any rate 
two species, the West African 4. africana and the Malayan A. 
fasciculata. It is interesting that the gap in the present distribu- 
tion is partially filled by the discovery of fossil teeth near Madras. 
The genus does not differ widely in external appearance from 
Hystriz ; it has, however, a rather longer tail; there are fewer 
large spines, and there is a tuft of them at the end of the tail, 
whence is derived the name of the genus. The frontal bones 
project a little distance between the nasals, a feature which does 
not seem to appear in the true Porcupines. There are fourteen 
dorsal vertebrae and five lumbars. The twenty-four caudal verte- 
brae of this Porcupine shows how much longer is its tail than 
that of Hystriz ; for in the latter twelve is about the number. 
A third genus of Old-World Porcupine is the singular 7’richys.? 
Of this there is but one species, 7. lipura. It is a curious fact 
that out of three examples, all from Borneo, two were quite 
without a tail. But this appears to be merely a mutilation, 
though it is smgular that the natives state it to be without a 
tail. One cannot help thinking of the way in which lizards 
sometimes shed their tails when pecked at. The tail of this 
genus is more than half the length of the body and head. TZ'richys 
has sixteendorsal and six lumbar vertebrae. There is a tuft of 
quills at the end of the tail, which are thin and compressed, 
1 Nat. Science, vi. 1895, p. 94. 
2 See Parsons, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 675. 
3 Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 739, and 1889, p. 75 ; and Cederblom, Zool. 
Jahrb. Syst. Abth. xi. 1897-98, p. 497. 
