RODENTIA. 



135 



the bones of the nose. They have four toes before, and five behind, all 



armed with stout nails. 



H. cristata, L. ; Buff. XII., pi. li and lii. (The Common Por- 

 cupine). Inhabits the south of Italy, Spain, and Sicily ; it is also 

 found in Barbary. The spines are very long, and annulated with 

 black and white ; a mane composed of long hairs occupies the head 

 and neck. The tail is short, and furnished with hollow truncated 

 tubes, suspended to slender pedicles, which make a noise when 

 shaken by the animal. The chanfrin of the bony head is ex- 

 tremely convex. There are other species not very different, but 

 with a less convex head, in India and in Africa. 

 We separate from the true Porcupines the 



Atherubus, Cuv. 



Where neither the head nor the muzzle is inflated, and in which wc 

 observe a long non-prehensile tail ; the toes are like those of the true 

 Porcupines. 



Hyst. fasciculafa, L. ; Buff. VII. 77; Schreb. 170.* (The 

 Pencil-tailed Porcupine). The upper part of the spines on the 

 back grooved, and the tail terminated by a bundle of flattened 

 horny slips, constricted from space to space. 



Eretison, F. Cuv. 



The Ursons have a flat cranium ; the muzzle short, and not convex ; 

 the tail of a middle size, and the spines short, and half hidden in the 

 hair. One species only is known, the 



Hystrix dorsata, L. ; Buff. XII. Iv. (The Urson.) From 

 North America. f 



Synetheres, F. Cuv. 

 The muzzle short and thick ; the head vaulted in front, and the spines 

 short ; the tail long, naked at the extremity, and prehensile, like that 

 of an Opossum or Sapajou. There are only four toes, all armed with 

 claws; they climb trees. 



Hi/st. prehensilis, L. ; Cuendu, Marcg., Hoitztlaquatzin, Her- 

 nand.]: (The Prehensile-tailed Porcupine, orCoendou) (a). Hair of 

 a brownish-black ; spines black and white. 



* This figure, copied from Seba, I, 52, i, is too short. That of Buff, is better, 

 but the slips at the end of the tail are not represented wth sufficient distinctness. 

 We can conjecture no reason by which De Blainville and Desmarets refer this spe- 

 cies to the genus of Rats ; it has the teeth and other characters of the Porcupines, 

 external as well as internal. 



t The pretended Coendou of Buffon is also an Urson, but a disfigured specimen 

 that had lost its hair. See Buff. XII, 54. 



X This word, in the Mexican language, means Spiny Opossum. It is the long 

 tailed Coendou of Buff. Supp. VII, 78; but the muzzle in the figure is too short. 

 The figure of Hernandez conveys a much better idea of the animal. 



^ (a) The chief peculiarity of the Coendou is, that, with the chief peculiarities 

 of the llodentia, it possesses also a locomotive organ, of which all other species of 

 Ilodentia have no trace. This is the prehensile tail, like some of the Simia, wliich, 



