1866.] MR. J. Y. JOHNSON ON TRACHICHTHYS DARWINII. 311 



Hystrix brevispinosus, Wagner. 



H.javanica, Waterh. ; Blainv. Osteogr. t. 2 (skull). 

 Brown ; throat whitish. 



Hab. Java ; a stuffed specimen and skull in the British Museum. 

 This animal was regarded as the male parent of the " Hybrid Por- 

 cupine." 



3. Acanthion flemingii, Gray, P. Z. S. 1847, p. 103. 



From a skull in the British Museum, perhaps the same as the 

 former. Mr. Bartlett called it "the square-spined, not crested, Por- 

 cupine." This makes me more doubtful of the history of the former 

 specimen. 



Mr. Waterhouse, in the observations on this skull in his ' History 

 of Mammalia,' vol. ii. p. 468, seems to have confounded it with the 

 skull of the " Hybrid Porcupine" said to have been bred in the 

 Surrey Zoological Gardens ; but both these skulls are in the Mu- 

 seum, and they appear to be distinct. The " Hybrid Porcupine " 

 has a distinct nuchal crest ; and this is said distinctly to be the skull 

 of an animal without any crest ; so I do not see how they can be the 

 skulls of the same species and the result of the same interbreeding. 



Unfortunately Mr. Gerrard, in the ' Catalogue of Bones in the 

 British Museum,' p. 199, has copied and adopted Mr. Waterhouse's 

 observation. 



The Hystricidcc have been generally characterized by being desti- 

 tute of any clavicle or collar bone ; but this is true only as far as 

 the genera belonging to the eastern hemisphere. The skeletons of 

 the other genera have not been described, but they are contained in 

 the British Museum Collection. 



The skeletons of the genera Erethizon, Sphiggurus, and Chcztomys 

 each have a well developed clavicle, attached to the keel of the sca- 

 pula and to the front of the chest-bone. The bones vary in thick- 

 ness and strength in the different genera. 



Professor Brandt calls one of the species of Hystrix H. hirsuti- 

 rostris ; but I have not seen any Porcupine that has not a hairv 

 muzzle. 



3. Description of Trachichthys darwinii, a new species of 



Berycoicl Fish from Madeira. By James Yate Johnson, 



C.M.Z.S. 



(Plate XXXII.) 



Family Berycid.e. 



Trachichthys darwinit, sp. n. (PI. XXXII.) 



D. 8.14. P. 14. A. 3.12. V. 1.6. C. 11 + 10. M. B. 8. 



Sq. lin. lat. 27. 



Body elliptical, compressed, high, clothed with broad scales some- 

 what irregularly disposed, the exposed surfaces and margins of which 



