1889.] DR. A. GtJNTHER ON A BORNEAN PORCUPINE. 75 



But without being acquainted with the cranial, dental, or other 

 characters, it would seem to me premature to offer an opinion as to 

 its generic relations, or even to give to it a distinct generic term, 

 much as the shape of the horns differs from that of all other known 

 Antelopes. It therefore seems to me to be sufficient to distinguish 

 it for the present as a species oi Antilope in the Cuvieriau sense, viz. 

 as dntilope triangularis. 



5. Note on a Boruean Porcupine, Trichys lipura. 

 By Dr. A. Gunther, F.R.S., F.Z.S. 



[Eeceived February 18, 1889.] 



In the • Proceedings' of this Society for 1876, p. 739, I described 

 a small species of Porcu])ine from the west coast of Borneo imder 

 the name of Trichys lipura. 



Tlie genus established for this Porcupine was characterized by 

 the absence or rudimentary condition of a tail and by the form of 

 its skull. The former character proves to be spurious, perhaps due 

 to mutilation, and has to be abandoned ; whilst the latter suffices by 

 itself to generically separate this Porcupine from Atherura. 



Since the publication of that paper the British Museum has received 

 two other specimens : one, a female, obtained by Mr. C. Hose at 

 Baram, Sarawak \ again, does not show the trace of a tail ; whilst the 

 other, of which the skin as well as the skeleton are preserved, and 

 which was found by Mr. A. Everett near the Batang Kubar River in 

 Sarawak, possesses a long and slender tail. 



Thus, of two specimens examined by Gervais (Voy. Bonite, 

 Mamm. p. 60), and of three specimens which have come under my 

 notice, th,ree were tailless, and only two provided with this appendage. 

 Tliis fact, combined with Mr. Low's statement that the natives had 

 assured him that this Porcupine was tailless, seems clearly to prove 

 that the loss or absence of the tail is of very frequent occurrence ; 

 and to judge from the condition of the inteouments, I am inclined 

 to believe that the tail is lost shortly after birth, if, indeed, its absence 

 is not congenital". 



However, the discovery that Trichys lipura is normally provided 

 with a tail has induced me to reexamine the literature in order to 

 ascertain whether tailed specimens of this Porcupine had been noticed 

 by previous authors. And there is no doubt that Waterhouse (see 

 Nat. Hist. Mammal, vol. ii. p. 470) had examined four specimens 

 of it, or, at least, of a closely allied species^, in the Leyden Museum. 



^ Mr. Hose says that the native name is " AnJcis." 



^ I, therefore, see no reason why the speoifia term " lipura " should not have 

 the same claim to being retained as those of Paradisea apoda, Cypselus apus, &c. 

 ^ He says that the specimens in the Leyden Museum are from Siam. 



