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Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon

by Robert A. Sterndale

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No. 406 Hystrix Yunnanensis

Habitat.—Burmah, in the Kakhyen hills, at elevations of from 2000 to 4500 feet.

Description.—after Dr. Anderson, who first discovered and named this species: “Dark brown on the head, neck, shoulders, and sides passing into a deep black on the extremities, a very narrow white line passing backwards from behind the angle of the mouth to the shoulder; under surface brownish; the spiny hairs of the anterior part of the trunk flattened, grooved or ungrooved. The crest begins behind the occiput and terminates before the shoulders; the hairs are long, slender and backwardly curved, the generality of them being about 4½ inches long, while the longer hairs measure about six inches.

“They are all paler than the surrounding hairs, and the individual hairs are either broadly tipped with yellowish-white, or they have a broad sub-apical band of that colour. The short, broad, spiny hairs, lying a short way in front of the quills, are yellow at their bases, the remaining portion being deep brown, whereas those more quill-like spiny hairs, immediately before the quills, have both ends yellow tipped.

“The quills are wholly yellow, with the exception of a dark brown, almost black band of variable breadth and position. It is very broad in the shorter quills, and is nearer the free end of the quill than its base, whereas in the long slender quills it is reduced to a narrow mesial band. The stout strong quills rarely exceed six inches in length, whilst the slender quills are one foot long. Posteriorly above the tail and at its sides many of the short quills are pure white. The modified quills on the tail, with dilated barb-like free ends are not numerous, and are also white. There are three kinds of rattle quills, the most numerous measure 0·65 inch in the length of the dilated hollow part, having a maximum breadth of 0·21 inch, whilst there are a few short cups 0·38 inch in length, with a breadth of 0·17 inch, and besides these a very few more elongated and narrow cylinders occur.”—‘Anat. and Zool. Res.,’ p. 332.

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