PORCUPINES. 
167 
these porcupines are purely nocturnal and terrestrial; consequently, the tail is 
never prehensile. 
Common The common porcupine, of which a group is represented in our 
Porcupine, coloured Plate, and a single individual in the accompanying woodcut, 
is the best known member of the first of these genera. As is the case with the other 
species of the genus, it is characterised by its massive form, its large size, the great 
length of the quills on the body, and by the short spiny tail terminating in a cluster of 
short slender-stalked quills, which are hollow and open at their extremities; these tail- 
quills making the peculiar rattling- 
noise noticeable when a porcupine 
is in motion. The genus is further 
characterised by the great eleva¬ 
tion and convexity of the skull, 
in which the chamber of the nose 
is frequently more capacious than 
the brain-case. 
Next to the beaver, the porcu¬ 
pines are the largest of the Old 
World Rodents, the common 
species measuring from 26 to 28 
inches in length, exclusive of the 
tail. The prevailing colour of this 
species is brownish black, with a 
white band crossing the front of 
the neck, and about half-way up the sides, when it becomes gradually narrow. 
The neck is furnished with a crest of long bristles, which are mostly brown at the 
base and white above. The quills on the body are of two kinds—the one distin¬ 
guished by their great length, slenderness, and flexibility, while the others are shorter 
and stouter, and are mostly concealed by the longer ones. These quills are mostly 
marked with broad rings of black and white; both extremities being of the latter hue. 
Those on the rump are, however, chiefly black; while the open quills at the end of the 
tail, as well as most of those clothing the rest of that appendage, are entirely white. 
This porcupine inhabits Southern Europe and Northern and Western Africa. 
. In India the common species is replaced by the closely allied 
hairy-nosed porcupine ( H. leucura), distinguished by the muzzle 
being densely clad with hairs, as well as by the quills at the base of the tail, and 
sometimes a row in the middle of the hinder part of the back, being mostly white. 
The skull, moreover, is less convex, with smaller nasal bones. This species is found 
from Ceylon to Kashmir, and appears to extend westwards as far as the Black Sea. 
Two other species inhabit India; of which the Bengal porcupine ( H. bengalensis ) 
has a much shorter crest on the neck, while in Hodgson’s porcupine this crest is 
totally wanting. The latter occurs in the Eastern Himalaya, and is represented by 
allied forms in Borneo and the Malayan region. The South African porcupine (H. 
afrce-australis ) is a third representative of the crested group. Fossil porcupines 
occur in the Pliocene rocks of Northern India, and also in the upper and middle 
Tertiaries of Europe. 
COMMON PORCUPINE. 
