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Show 1889.] DR. A. GtTNTHER ON A BORNEAN PORCUPINE. 75 But without being acquainted with the cranial, dental, or other characters, it would seem to m e premature to offer an opinion as to its generie 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, lt therefore seems to me to be sufficient to distinguish it for the present as a species of Antilope in the Cuvierian sense, viz. as Antilope triangularis. 5. Note on a Bornean Porcupine, Trichys lipura. By Dr. A. GUNTHER, F.R.S., F.Z.S. [Received February 18,1889.] In the ' Proceedings' of this Society for 1876, p. 739, I described a small species of Porcupine from the west coast of Borneo under the name of Trichys lipura. The 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, Sarawakl, 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, M a m m . p. 60), and of three specimens which have come under my notice, three were tailless, and only two provided with this appendage. This 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 integuments, I am inclined to believe that the tail is lost shortly after birth, if, indeed, its absence is not congenital2. 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 species3, in the Leyden Museum. 1 Mr. Hose says that the native name is " Anh•is.,' 2 I, therefore, see no reason why the specific term " lipura" should not have the same claim to being retained as those of Paradisea apoda, Cypselus apus, &c. 3 H e says that the specimens in the Leyden Museum are from Siam. |
