On a new Porcupine from South-America

Cuvier ¹) figured the skull of Hystrix prehensilis, and afterwards Brandt ²) gave figures of the same species. On comparing these figures it strikes one that great differences exist between these figures, and the questions arise: has either of the two authors perhaps figured a skull of another species sub nomine H. prehensilis? which is the true H. prehensilis? In our Museum I found three stuffed specimens and three skeletons labelled H. prehensilis: two skeletons were collected at Surinam by Dieperink in the year 1835; they agree in all details; the third skeleton we took out of a specimen, purchased 1877 from the Zoological Gardens at Rotterdam, s. n. H. prehensilis.