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Show 1871.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON ANIMALS IN THE MENAGERIE. 233 18. HYSTRIX CRISTATA, Linn. W e have had in the Gardens of late years a considerable number of Porcupines of the group allied to Hystrix cristata, from Western and Southern Africa and from India. I have hitherto referred the Western-African specimens to H. cristata, the Southern-African to H. africee australis, Peters, and the Indian specimens to H. leucura, Sykes. At the same time, I must observe that the task of distinguishing these species by external characters is by no means an easy one, and that, in the event of the animals getting together, it would not be always very easy to recognize them again. At the present time we have in the Gardens two Porcupines from India, and one from Ceylon, which we refer to H. leucura. The two Indian specimens (both presented by Colonel Thomson, Aug. 25, 1865) * have very little white on the point of the crest, a line of white spines down the centre of the lower back, and the long quills of the back with long white terminations. These are just the characters attributed to the Indian Porcupine (Hystrix leucura sive hirsutirostris) by Mr. Waterhouse in his excellent 'History of Mammalia ' (vol. ii. p. 454). The Ceylonese specimen (presented by Mr. Oswald Brodie in 1864) is very nearly similar, but has no white at all, or next to none, on the crest. Of African Porcupines of the H. cristata group we have now two living examples. In one, said to be from West Africa (purchased May 1869), the crest is broadly ended with white, there is no mesial line of white spines on the back, and the white ends of the long quills of the back are much shorter, so that the quills are generally altogether blacker. The second, presented by the Duke of Edinburgh in November 1860, and said to have been brought from the Cape Colony, generally resembles the West-African specimen, but is larger, and has a white mesial line of spines on the back, as in H. leucura. It has the crest broadly tipped with white as in the West-African specimen. This I suppose to be Hystrix africee-austr alis of Peters (Reise n. Mos. M a m m . p. 170). At the same time I must confess that I am not very well satisfied with these determinations. I do not intend for a moment to deny that the three species mentioned above may not be separated by external characters, as well as by their well-known cranial differences; but living Porcupines are not easy animals to examine, and in the many inspections I have made of our specimens I have not been able to make out any more positive characters by which to distinguish them. In 1865, I described and figured in the Society's ' Proceedings' (p. 352, pl. xvi.), under a name previously given by Mr. Day, some examples of the " Orange-quilled Porcupine " of Malabar, which had then been recently received from Col. Sir W . T. Dennison. In my description of this supposed species I pointed out that, as regards its * According to their labels. But this pair bred in 1866; and when the young pair were sold, Mr. Bartlett suspects that one of the old pair was sent away in error instead of one of the younger pair. |