124 RODENTIA. 



clothed with stout quills, aud from its tip spring about 

 twenty hollow quills, most of them truncated and open at 

 the end, supported upon a very slender stalk ; the feet are 

 covered with long, nearly black, coarse hairs ; the whiskers 

 7 or 8 inches long. General colour of the animal brown- 

 black ; a white band crosses the fore part of the neck, and 

 extends about half-way up the sides, becoming gradually 

 narrower from the middle. 



Length of head and body, 28 inches ; tail without the 

 quills, 6 inches ; one of the quills at the end of the tail, 

 2|- inches. 



It burrows in the ground or lives in holes of rocks, feed- 

 ing on vegetable substances ; its flesh is well-flavoured. 



The Porcupine inhabits Europe, Greece, Italy in the 

 Apennines, and near Rome, and Spain. Some suppose that 

 it is truly indigenous only in Worth Africa, and that it has 

 been introduced into Europe. 



Genus LEPTJS. 



Teeth. — Incisors, i; molars, -|^| or -|^| . The grinders 

 have flat summits, the plates of enamel transverse ; incisors 

 grooved, four in the upper jaw, viz. two in front and two 

 smaller immediately behind them. Ears very long; tail 

 short, turned up ; fore-feet with five toes, hind-feet with 

 four ; hind-legs much longer and more muscular than the 

 fore-legs. 



Leptis timidus. 

 Lepus timidus, Desm. Mamm. Sp. 559 ; Bell, Brit. Quad. 



Description. — Ears longer than the head, which is thick 

 and large ; inside of the cheeks hairy ; eyes lateral, large, 

 and prominent ; soles of the feet hairy. Fur a fine down, 

 with longer hairs intermixed, of a tawny-grey or rusty- 



