CANADA PORCUPIXE 13 



to harden or toughen him. That blunt nose of his is as tender 

 as a bab^^'s and he is snuffed out by a blow that would hardly 

 bewilder for a moment any other forest animal." In his refer- 

 ence to the passive resistance of the porcupines Burroughs is 

 not exact as was indicated above. The porcupine does not 

 remain quiet and allow the enemy to charge and impale itself 

 on the quills. When the porcupine is expecting an attack, it 

 is tensed in every muscle. The legs are stift^ened. The body 

 is raised. The tail is held up from the ground. The head is 

 bent low. If the attack is to be from the front the porcupine 

 waits till the enemy is near, whirls with a quickness which the 

 eye can scarcely follow, strikes a telling blow with the tail and 

 at the same time lurches heavily upward with the back, thus 

 vanquishing his enemy with one stroke. 



Speaking of animal intelligence in general, Burroughs says: 

 " Our common porcupine, for instance, has little use for wit or 

 celerity of movement. It carries a death dealing armor to pro- 

 tect it from its enemies and it can climb the nearest hemlock 

 tree and live on the bark all winter" (op. cit. p. 3) This cred- 

 its porcupines with far more viability than they possess, and 

 disregards the "tender as a baby" attributes referred to above. 

 Again Burroughs says of the porcupine : " He is as stupid and 

 as indifferent as the skunk; his broad, blunt nose points a wit- 

 less head" (op cit. p. 58). These expressions are but typical 

 of the reactions of the better naturalists toward the "porcupig" 

 as they often call it. One would also suspect on ]\Iosso's (30) 

 hypothesis that its exceedingly slow movements would beget a 

 correspondingly dull mentality. Experimental results will either 

 determine whether the charge of stupidity has any justification 

 or whether our laboratory methods really test the intelligence 

 of animals. 



The writer's own experience with the animal previous to 

 this study was limited to one encounter in the mountains of 

 Colorado in mid-winter several years ago. There he reacted in 

 the customary way by clubbing the creature to death with the 

 same feeling of satisfaction one would experience in killing a 

 snake or a spider. Even on the arrival of the first consignment 

 used in this study there was an unexpressed wish that the porcu- 

 pine had more of the graceful cunning of the raccoon or fox, 

 the neat attractiveness of the white rat or chip-munk, the 



