PORCUPINES. 



167 



these porcupines are purely nocturnal and terrestrial; consequently, the tail is 

 never prehensile. 



Common The common porcupine, of which a group is represented in our 



Porcupine, coloured Plate, and a single individual in the accompanying woodcut, 

 is the best known member of the first of these genera. As is the case with the other 

 species of the genus, it is characterised by its massive form, its large size, the great 

 length of the quills on the body, and by the short spiny tail terminating in a cluster of 

 short slender-stalked quills, which are hollow and open at their extremities ; these tail- 

 quills making the peculiar rattling 

 noise noticeable when a porcupine 

 is in motion. The genus is further 

 characterised by the great eleva- 

 tion and convexity of the skull, 

 in which the chamber of the nose 

 is frequently more capacious than 

 the brain-case. 



Next to the beaver, the porcu- 

 pines are the largest of the Old 

 World Rodents, the common 

 species measuring from 26 to 28 

 inches in length, exclusive of the 

 tail. The prevailing colour of this 

 species is brownish black, with a COMMON PORCUPINE. 



white band crossing the front of 



the neck, and about half-way up the sides, when it becomes gradually narrow. 

 The neck is furnished with a crest of long bristles, which are mostly brown at the 

 base and white above. Thj quills on the body are of two kinds the one distin- 

 guished by their great length, slenderness, and flexibility, while the others are shorter 

 and stouter, and are mostly concealed by the longer ones. These quills are mostly 

 marked with broad rings of black and white ; both extremities being of the latter hue. 

 Those on the rump are, however, chiefly black ; while the open quills at the end of the 

 tail, as well as most of those clothing the rest of that appendage, are entirely white. 

 This porcupine inhabits Southern Europe and Northern and Western Africa. 



In India the common species is replaced by the closely allied 

 hairy-nosed porcupine (H. leucura), distinguished by the muzzle 

 being densely clad with hairs, as well as by the quills at the base of the tail, and 

 sometimes a row in the middle of the hinder part of the back, being mostly white. 

 The skull, moreover, is less convex, with smaller nasal bones. This species is found 

 from Ceylon to Kashmir, and appears to extend westwards as far as the Black Sea, 

 Two other species inhabit India ; of which the Bengal porcupine (H. bengalensis) 

 has a much shorter crest on the neck, while in Hodgson's porcupine this crest is 

 totally wanting. The latter occurs in the Eastern Himalaya, and is represented by 

 allied forms in Borneo and the Malayan region. The South African porcupine (H. 

 afrce-australis) is a third representative of the crested group. Fossil porcupines 

 occur in the Pliocene rocks of Northern India, and also in the upper and middle 

 Tertiaries of Europe. 



Other Species. 



