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FASCICULATED PORCUPINE.

Tus animal is a native of the Malayan peninsula,
and is also found in Sumatra. “Porcupines,” says Mr.
Hodgson, “are very numerous and very mischievous in |
some parts of India, where they depredate greatly among
the potatoe, and other tuberous or edible-rooted crops.
They are most numerous in the central region, but are
common to all three regions. They breed in spring, and
usually produce two young about the time the crops
begin to ripen. They dwell together in pairs, in burrows
of their own formation. Their flesh is delicious, like
pork, but much more delicately flavoured; and they are
easily tamed, so as to breed in confinement. ll tribes
and classes, even high-caste Hindoos, eat them; and _ it
is deemed lucky to keep one or two alive in stables,
where they are encouraged to breed. Royal stables are
seldom without at least one of them.”

This species differs from the common poreupine by
having little or no crest. The spines commence upon
the back of the head, where they are little more than
an inch in length, and extend to the root of the tail,
occupying nearly the whole of the back and sides: the
longest are scarcely more than from four to five inches in
length. They are mostly white at the base, and black
towards the extremity. A few slenderer spines are
occasionally intermixed with the others. The entire length
of the body is little more than a foot, and the tail about
five inches.

In common with the rest of its tribe, the fasciculated
porcupine, in confinement, sleeps during the day, and

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