sixth being very small. The clavicles are well developed. A curious fact about C. villosus is that the acetabular cavity is perforate (on both sides), or at least only closed by membrane. In many forms of Rodents the bone is very thin in this region. This fact perhaps lessens the significance of the perforation of the acetabulum of Echidna (see p. 109).
Of the allied genus Chaetomys, also Neotropical, there is but a single species, which inhabits Brazil. It has a nearly completely closed orbit, a feature which differentiates it from the last animal, and one which also shows it to be a more modified form. The spiny covering is less pronounced than in its allies.
Fam. 8. Hystricidae.—This family is characterised by the fact that all its members possess spines; but the tail, if at all long, is not prehensile, and the soles of the feet are smooth and not covered with rough tubercles, as in the Tree Porcupines of the next family, Erethizontidae. The clavicle is less developed than in the arboreal forms. In the organs of digestion there are points of a family difference between the two groups of spiny Rodents. The tongue has serrated scales arranged in transverse rows, which are directed backwards. A gall-bladder, though not always present, is sometimes found; it apparently never exists in the arboreal Porcupines and in Erethizon. The lungs show a great tendency to subdivision, which appears to be especially marked in the genus Atherura. The caecum seems also to be shorter in the Ground Porcupines. In Hystrix cristata the small intestine measures 15 feet 7 inches; the caecum, 8 inches; the large intestine, 4 feet 4 inches:—in Atherura africana the caecum measures 7½ inches; the large intestine, 1 foot 10 inches. The corresponding measurements of Synetheres villosus were: small intestine, 7 feet 3 inches; caecum, 1 foot 4 inches; large intestine, 2 feet 7 inches. In Erethizon the caecum is 2 feet 4 inches in length. These differences are too large and too constant in a number of presumedly allied forms to be overlooked.
Mr. Parsons has directed attention[1] also to a number of muscular differences, such indeed as might be expected to occur between animals of such different habits.
The genus Hystrix embraces the better-known Porcupines. It is a genus of wide range, extending from the East Indies to Africa,
- ↑ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, pp. 251, 680.
