332 RODENTIA. 



HYSTRICID^. 



Genus Hysteix, Linn. 



* Hystrix yunnanensis, n. s. 



The porcupine whicli occurs in the high valleys and on the mountains to the 

 east of the Kakhyen hills resembles the common porcupine of Lower Bengal in the 

 possession of a nuchal crest, but it is at the same time markedly distinct from it 

 in the size and relations of its nasals which conform to the type represented by 

 H. {Acanthion) Jmanica. It is thus closely allied to S. Javcmica,^ from which it 

 is distinguished by the presence of its moderately well developed crest, which, 

 however, is very small compared with the great crest of S. leucnra,^ but large 

 contrasted with the few scattered longer hairs of S. longicauda,^ and shorter than 

 the crest of H. hengalensis* In its crest it apparently closely resembles H. suh- 

 cristata, Swinhoe,'^ from China, and had not Swinhoe stated that the skull of JI. snb- 

 cristata is very similar in form to the skull of H. liodgsoni, Gray,*^ I would have 

 been disposed to consider this "Western Yunnan porcupine as S. subcrlstata ; but as 

 its skull is that of an Acanthion, it is impossible, in view of Swinhoe's statement, to 

 consider them as the same species. I have therefore no alternative but to describe 

 the Yunnan form as distinct. 



Dark brown on the head, neck, shoulders and sides, passing into deep black on 

 the extremities, a very narrow white line passing backwards from behind the angle 

 of the mouth to the shoulder ; under surface brownish. The spiny hairs of the 

 anterior part of the trunk flattened, grooved, or ungrooved. The crest begins behind 

 the occiput and terminates before the shoulders ; the hairs are long, slender, and 

 backwardly curved, the generality of them being about 4^ inches long, while the 

 longer hairs measure about 6 inches. They are all paler than the surrounding hairs, 

 and the individual hairs are either broadly tipped with yellowish- white, or they have 

 a broad sub-apical band of that colour. The short broad spiny hairs lying a 

 short way in front of the quills are yellow at their bases, the remaining portion 

 being deep brown, whereas those more quill-like spiny hairs, immediately before 

 the quills, have both ends yellow-tipped. The quills are wholly yellow, with the 

 exception of a dark brown, almost black band, of variable breadth and position. 

 It is very broad in the shorter quills, and is nearer the free end of the quill than 

 its base ; whereas, in the long and slender quills, it is reduced to a narrow mesial 

 band. The stout strong quills rarely exceed 6 inches in length, whilst the slender 

 quills are 1 foot long. Posteriorly, above the tail and at its sides, many of the short 

 quills are pure white. The modified quills on the tail, with dilated barb-like free 

 ends, are not numerous, and are also white. There are three kinds of rattle-quills : 



' F. Cuv. : Mem. du Mus., vol. ix, 1822, pp. 425 aud 



431, Tab. 20, bis. figs. 3 and 4, skull. 

 2Proc. Zool. Soc, July 1831, p. 103. 



sMarsden : Hist. Sum., 1810, p, 118, Plate xiii,ii. 1. 



''Bl3'th : Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xx, 1852, p. 170. 



'" Proc. Zool. Soc, Lond., 1870, p. 638. 



^ Proc. Zool. Soc, Lond., June 1847, p. 101. 



