100 MAMMALIA. 



PORCUPINES, properly so called. 



Have the head more or less convex or vaulted, by the development of 

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

 armed with stout nails. 



//. cristata. (The Common Porcupine. ) 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 occu- 

 pies the head and neck. The tail is short, and furnished with hollow trun- 

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

 shaken by the animal. 



ATUEHUHUS, Cuv. 



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

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



Hyst. fasdculata, L. Buff. (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. (The Urson.) From North America. 



STSTETHEBES, 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. 



LEPUS, Lin. 



Hares have a very distinctive character in their superior incisors, which are 

 double, that is, each of them has a smaller one behind it. Their molars, 

 five every where, are individually formed of two vertical laminae soldered 

 together, and in the upper jaw there is a sixth, simple and veiy small. 

 They have five toes before and four behind. The inside of their mouth, 

 and the under part of the feet are lined with hairs like the rest of the body. 



LEPUS, Cuv. 



Or the true Hares, have long ears; a short tail; the hind feet much longer 

 than the fore ones; imperfect clavicles, and the infra-orb itary spaces in the 

 skeleton reticulated. The species are so numerous and similar, that it is 

 difficult to characterise them. 



L. American*, Gm. (The American Rabbit.) Nearly similar in size and 

 colour to the European species; feet reddish; no black on either ears ortail. 

 Nestles in the hollows of trees, up which it sometimes ascends as far as the 

 branches. Flesh soft and insipid. 



