ls round and rapidly
charges back. They also have a side-way jerk which is effective.

NO. 403. HYSTRIX LEUCURA.
_The White-tailed Indian Porcupine_ (_Jerdon's No. 204_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Kanta-sahi_, _Sayi_, _Sayal_, _Sarsel_, Hindi;
_Sajru_, Bengali; _Chotia-dumsee_, Nepali; _Saori_, Gujrati;
_Salendra_ and _Sayal_, Mahrathi; _Yed_, Canarese; _Ho-igu_, Gondi;
_Phyoo_, Burmese; _Heetava_, Singhalese.

HABITAT.--All over India (except perhaps Lower Bengal), Burmah and
Ceylon.

[Illustration: _Hystrix leucura_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Blackish-brown; muzzle clad with short, stiff,
bristly hairs; whiskers long and black, and a few white spines on
the face; spines on the throat short, grooved, some with white
setaceous points forming a half-collar; crest of head and neck formed
of long black bristles, with here and there one with a long white
tip; the spines of the sides are short, flattish, grooved or striated,
mostly with white points; the large quills of the back are either
entirely black or ringed at the base and middle with white, a few
with white tips; the longer and thinner quills on the back and sides
have long white terminations; many of these again, particularly the
longest, have a basal and one or two central white rings; the short
quills on the mesial line of the lumbar region are nearly all white,
and the longer striated quills of this region are mostly white;
quills of the tail white or yellowish, a few black ones at the root;
pedunculated quills are long, broad, and much flattened in old
animals.

SIZE.--Head and body, 32 inches; tail, 8 inches.

The description given in his 'Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicae' by Dr.
Kellaart, who was a most careful observer, has been of great
assistance to me in the above, as it was also, I fancy, to Jerdon,
and his subsequent remarks are worthy of consideration. "The
identification of species from single characters," he observes, "is
at all times difficult and unsatisfactory in the genus _Hystrix_,
particularly so as regard the conformation of the skull." And again:
"The number of molars varies also in different specimens. In two
adults obtained at Trincomalee there were only three molars on each
side of the jaw, four being the dental formula of the genus
_Hystrix_."

I think such aberrations ought to warn us from trying to make too
many genera out of these animals. Dr. Gray, whose particular
forte--or shall I say weakness?--was minute subdivision, classed (in
1847) the I