772 On a new Species of Porcupine. [Aug, 



is from 16 to 201bs, Girth behind the shoulders 18 inches. Head to 

 the occiput 5f inches. Tail only 4 inches, Tail and hollow quills, 

 5 Jr. Ear to the fore base 1^, to crown, 1. Elbow to wrist 3§. Palma 

 and nails 2f. True knee to os calcis 3f . Plarrta and nails 3f . The 

 structure is typical^ or precisely similar in all its details to that of 

 Leucurus, which species howeTer is much larger, being 28 to 30 inches* 

 long from snout to vent and 20 to 22 inches in girth behind the 

 shoulder, and weighing 30ifes and upwards. The long bluff nose 7 

 small pig eyes, andromorphous ears, short purely plantigrade limbs, 

 (furnished with 4 toes and a rudiment anteally, and 5 perfect toes pos- 

 teally) and thick heavy body, give to the erestless porcupine all the im- 

 gainliness of aspect proper to his congeners, while the absence of the 

 fine sweeping crest with which they are adorned, adds to the uncomely 

 physiognomy another peculiar feature of dulness in this species. The 

 head, neck, fore half of the body, and entire belly and limbs, are covered 

 with spinous bristles which have a pretty uniform length of from 2 to 3 

 inches, but are shortest and feeblest on the head and limbs. The 

 hinder part of the body, or croup and tail, only, are armed with true 

 quills of which the longest thick ones are about 7 inches, and the 

 longest thin ones, about 12 inches. The tail is conico-depressed, thick 

 and but one- sixth of the animal's length. Its longest thick quills are 

 3 to 4 inches ; and its longest thin ones, 5 to 6 inches. The rattle at 

 the end of the tail consists of 35 to 40 hollow cylinders of about an 

 inch in length, some of which are closed and some open at the distant 

 end. The skin of the body is pure white. The iris brown. The 

 nudish lips and nude soles of feet, fleshy brown. The spinous bristles 

 black, save on the head, where they are less deep-hued, passing to- 

 brown. The white collar is very narrow and vague. The quills white 

 with but one subcentral black ring ; those of the inferior surface (only) of 

 the tail, being all white, and the like marginally round the anal and 

 genital organs : the nails brown horn. Every part of the body is 

 covered with the appropriate vestment save the mere anal and genital 



" It Col. Sykes be right as to the size of Leucurus, the common sub-Himalayan 

 species, called nepalensis by me is certainly distinct and nearer to eristatus. It has the 

 upper surface of the tail black laterally and white centrally, forming- three conspicuous 

 hues of colour on the upper surface. The tubes are all white and so is all the under 

 surface." 



