193 



HYSTRICID^E. 



HYSTRICID/E. 



191 



Pennant says, " These animals produce a bezoar ; but according to Seba, 

 only those which inhabit Java, Sumatra, and Malacca. These bezoars 

 were very highly valued, and have been sold for five hundred crowns 

 a piece. It has also been pretended that a stone was procured from 

 the head of this animal infinitely more efficacious than other bezoars 

 (Tavernier) ; but this may be placed among the many impositions of 

 oriental empirics." In September, 1833, the Secretary of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society called attention to a young Hystrix cristata which had 

 been recently brought forth in the menagerie, being the first instance 

 of such an occurrence in this species, and respecting which he added 

 that observation of the young while sucking confirmed the correctness 

 of Blumenbach's statement that the nipple is nearly axillary. 







Common Porcupine (Hyslrix cristata), 



" Histrices," eays Pliny (' Hist. Nat,' viii 35), " general India et 

 Africa." Agricola, in his book 'De Animantibus Subterraueis,' remarks, 

 " Hoc animal gignit India et Africa, unde ad nos uuper allatutn eat." 

 Pennant elates that it inhabits India, the sand-hills on the south-west of 

 the Caspian Sea, Southern Tartary, Persia, Palestine, and all parts of 

 Africa. He adds that it is found wild in Italy, and is brought into 

 the markets of Home, where it is eaten ; but that it is not originally 

 a native of Europe. (For this last he quotes Agricola.) The specimens 

 from Italy are generally rather smaller, and have shorter quilK 



Colonel Sykes has described a species under the name of Hyitrix 

 leucurut (Sayal of the Mahnittas) as Hyitrix caudd albil. He states 

 that the animal appears to be distinct from the European species, 

 which it closely resembles in form and covering. It is nearly a third 

 larger. All the spines and open tubes of the tail are entirely white, 

 which is not the case in Hyitrix crittata. The spines of the crest also 

 are so long as to reach the insertion of the tail. The ears are much 

 less rounded, and the noils are shorter, infinitely deeper, and more 

 compressed, and with deep channels below. The white gular band is 

 more marked ; and, finally, the Asiatic species is totally destitute of 

 hair spines, where wanting, being replaced by strong bristles even 

 down to the nails. ('Zool. Proc.,' 1830, 1831.) Mr. Hodgson notes this 

 species among the Mammalia of Nepaul, as inhabiting the central and 

 lower regions. (' Zool. Proc./ 1834.) Mr. Waterhouse gives the two 

 following species of H>jitri.r : 



//. J/odyioni, Crestless Nepaul Porcupine ; H. aloplna, Hodgson. 

 General hue brown-black ; head brown ; in the visible portions of the 

 quill* the black prevails over the white, but numerous very long and 

 slender quills are almost entirely white, the spiny bristles which form 

 the chief covering of the animal are rather long and slender, and have 

 long hair-like points. It inhabits Nepaul. 



//. Jamaica, Java Porcupine ; Acantftion Jaranicum, F. Cuvierand 

 Van der Hoven ; //. faciculata, Muller ; //. brevispinoea, Wagner ; 

 Acanthion Jatanicum, Gray. Body for the most par? covered with stiff 

 and somewhat depressed spines, wbich are distinctly grooved on the 

 outer surface, and have prickly points ; under half of the back and 

 the tail covered with quills, the quills rather short, those at the end of 

 the tail hollow, and pedunculated ; general tint brown (or sometimes 

 black), freckled with dirty-yellow ; the stouter quills brownish -yellow, 

 with a sub-terminal broad dusky ring ; the longer and more slender 

 quills with the exposed ends dirty-yellow. It inhabits Java, Sumatra, 

 and Borneo. 



Aiherv.ro,, CUT. (Acanthion 1 F. Cuv.). Neither the head nor the 

 muzzle convex; tail long but not prehensile; feet like those of 

 'rix. 



A. crililatn, Hyitrix faiciculata, Shaw; Le Porcdpic it Queue en 

 Pincau, Buff. 



Cuvier describes this species as having the spines of the body 

 hollowed into a furrow forwards, and having the tail terminated by a 

 fasciculus of horny flattened strips (lanieres corndes aplatie), con- 

 stricted at intervals (etranglee* d'espace en espacr ). 



Mr. Uennett (' Gardens nnd Mrnagerie of the Zoological Society ') 

 remarks, that although tolerably described and figured by Buffon, this 



HAT. HIST. liiv. vol.. in. 



species had been lost to science until within two years from the time 

 he wrote (1830), when it was recovered almost simultaneously both 

 in its original habitat and in a very distant quarter of the globe. Sir 

 Stamford Raffles, he observes, had cursorily referred to it, and he 

 presumes that the authority ou which it was formed into a new genus 

 by Cuvier was a skeleton and skin transmitted from India by M. 

 Diard in the year 1828. Nearly at the same time, he tells us, a living 

 individual was brought to England and presented to the Zoological 

 Society by Lieutenant Vidal, who accompanied the expedition for the 

 formation of the projected colony at Fernando Po, where these 

 animals were found in such plenty as to afford a staple article of food 

 to the inhabitants. It has been conjectured, he a<lds, on very prob- 

 able grounds, that they are not indigenous in the island, but had been 

 brought thither from the East by the Portuguese, who were formerly 

 settled there ; but he observes that the space interposed between the 

 two regions can scarcely be regarded as conclusive evidence of their 

 having been introduced into the colony, while there are such striking 

 instances of animals common to India and the west of Africa as are 

 furnished by the lion, the leopard, &c. 



Mr. Bennett proceeds to state that iu the teeth and in the organs of 

 motion it corresponds, as Baron Cuvier has noticed, with the Common 

 Porcupine, from which it differs chiefly in the form of the head ; the 

 line of its profile, instead of being elevated into a curve of large 

 extent, passing in almost a straight direction from the occiput to the 

 extremity of the nose. In these respects, Mr. Bennett remarks in con- 

 tinuation, it agrees with F. Cuvier's genus Acanthion, founded on 

 tins very character observed by the latter on two skulls preserved iu 

 the Paris Museum, the one from Java, the other, in all probability, 

 from Africa. These coincidences would have induced Mr. Bennett to 

 consider the two genera as identical, were it not that Baron Cuvier 

 has omitted all mention of that established by his brother, although 

 the materials for comparison were fully at his disposal. F. Cuvier 

 moreover enumerates them both in his genera of Mammalia. 



Mr. Bennett further observes that Linnieus founded his Hystrix 

 macroura on Seba's figure ; but Buffon having quoted neither Seba 

 nor Liun&us, Dr. Shaw took it for granted that this was a different 

 animal, and consequently gave it a new name //. fasciculata. Mr. 

 Bennett entertained however but little doubt, notwithstanding some 

 trifling discrepancies in the figures, that Sir Stamford Raffles was 

 right in his conjecture that they both represent one and the same 

 species. 



The following is Mr. Bennett's accurate description : " The differ- 

 ences between this species and the Common Porcupine are obvious at 

 the first glance. Ita general colour is nearly the same, but with less 

 intermixture of brown. The upper parts of the body, the outer sides 

 of the limbs, and the head, neck, and face, are of this dusky hue ; 

 but the under parts, inside of the limbs, fore part of the neck, and 

 throat, are of a grayish-white, with the exception of a darker band 

 which crosses the breast in front of the fore legs. The spines com- 

 mence upon the back of the head, where they are little more than 

 an inch in length, and extend to the root of the tail, occupying nearly 

 the whole of the back and sides. The longest are scarcely more than 

 from four to five inches in length, and extend to the root of the tail, 

 occupying nearly the whole of the back and sides. They are mostly 

 white at the base and black towards the extremity, but many of them 

 are black throughout, and others black above and white beneath. All 

 of them are marked on the upper surface by a deep and broad groove 

 running the whole of their length, and terminate in very sharp points. 

 The skin in which they are implanted appears perfectly white, and 

 where the spines are most numerous is scarcely furnished with a 

 single hair. A few slenderer spines running into long black bristles 

 are occasionally intermixed with the others. The greater part of the 

 tail is ban both of hairs and spines, and covered only by flat blackish 

 scales disposed in rings, the tip alone being surmounted by a tuft of 

 long flat bristles having the form neither of hairs nor of quills, but 

 bearing a close resemblance, as Buffon has aptly remarked, to narrow 

 slips of parchment cut in an irregular manner. This tuft is of a 

 whitish colour, and about two inches in length. The entire length of 

 the body in our specimen is little more than a foot, and that of the 

 tail from four to five inches. The whiskers are very long ; the eyes 

 small and black ; and the ears short, round, and naked." 



The author last quoted states that, like the rest of its tribe, this 

 species sleeps during the day, and becomes in some degree active only 

 on the approach of night. Its intelligence, he adds, is equally limited, 

 and its manners equally fretful with those of the common species, like 

 which, " it raises its spines when irritated or disturbed, stamps with 

 its feet upon the floor of its cage, and swells and looks big in its 

 defensive armour." 



It is found in the Celebes Islands (Seba) ; Asia (Linn.) ; Malay 

 Peninsula (Buffon) ; Isles of the Indian Archipelago (Pennant) ; 

 Sumatra (Sir Stamford Raffles) ; Fernando Po (Vidal). 



Erethizon (F. Cuvier). Cranium flat ; muzzle short and not convex ; 

 tail moderate ; quills short and half hidden in the hair. 



. donatum ; Hyatrix dorsata, Linn. Ears short, hid in the fur ; 

 head, body, legs, and upper part of the tail covered with soft, lon<r, 

 dark-brown hair ; on the upper part of the head, back, body, and tfiil, 

 numbers of sharp strong quills, the longest on the back, the least 

 towards the head and eides, the longest three uiches, but nil hid iu 



o 



