1866.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE SPECIES OF PORCUPINES. 'A07 



is as much surprised as myself to observe that the animal that was 

 sent from India by Mr. Grote and a stuffed specimen which we re- 

 ceived from India as a wild Porcupine are scarcely to be distinguished 

 from the male which was said to be bred between the two species or 

 rather genera of Porcupines. 



Are the two specimens from India to be regarded as a distinct 

 species, bearing an external resemblance to the hybrid? or are they 

 a mixed breed which has established itself in India? If the latter, 

 are they hybrids between the Crested Porcupine of the Plains and 

 the Crestless Porcupine of the Himalayas ? If so, the slight differ- 

 ence in coloration between the specimens I described, born in the 

 Surrey Zoological Gardens, and the two from India may be explained 

 by one having been produced from the Javan and the others from 

 the Nepalese Crestless Porcupines. 



It would be very interesting to know if the specimens received from 

 India are a hybrid race that has established itself in the country and 

 is reproduced, or if it is the result of artificial domestic culture ; or is 

 it possible, which I think most probable, that there may be some 

 "mistake about the history of the animal received from the Surrey 

 Zoological Gardens ? for we know that formerly keepers of menageries 

 were not as careful as they might have been respecting the history 

 of the animals which they exhibited, or as careful of preserving the 

 history of them as we now are in the Gardens of this Society*. 



Until more is known of the history of the animal, it would be very 

 unsafe to form any theories on the subject. 



Whether the animal, or rather the form of Porcupine, under con- 

 sideration is a mule or a distinct type, as it appears to be permanent 

 and the form to have occurred in two very distant localities, I believe 

 that it is well that it should have a generic name and a place in the 

 systematic catalogues. 



In my " Monograph of the Porcupines of the Eastern Hemi- 

 sphere," published in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' 

 for 1847, before referred to, I divided the species into three genera, 

 according to the structure of the skull and teeth, viz. Hystrix, Acan- 

 thion, and Atherura. 



I then believed that the Acanthions were separated from the Hy- 

 strices by their being destitute of any vertical or nuchal crest ; but 

 the more extended series of animals which have come under my 

 examination since that paper was written has shown that the Acan- 

 thions, as there defined from the skull, include animals which have a 

 large nuchal crest, and which can hardly be distinguished externally 

 from the species of Hystrix, others without any indication of a 

 crest, as A. javanicum, and, thirdly, some specimens which have a 

 small and low nuchal crest of short spines, as the " Hybrid Porcu- 

 pine " and the one received from Mr. Grote from Iudia, now living 

 in the Zoological Gardens. 



* Since the above was read I have seen Mr. Warwick, who had the care of the 

 animals in the Surrey Zoological Gardens ; and he seems to think that there must 

 have been some mistake in the account. He never recollects any hybrid Porcu- 

 pines being born in the Gardens; if any had been born he would have noted it, 

 as lis is interested in such matters. 



