CANADA PORCUPINE 3 



No. 12. Old, male, medium in size. Nearly black with white quills on top of 

 head. Captured by the author at 2 o'clock A. M. on April 7th as the 

 animal was returning from the feeding grounds to the dens. Died April 

 17th. Cause unknown. Used only in preliminary hand reactions. 



No. 1.3. Female, age about 12 months, small. Captured April 7th, after an all- 

 night \igil at the foot of the tree into which she had gone to feed at 8:30 

 the evening before. Died May 11th. Cause unknown. Used in prelim- 

 inarj' hand-reactions. 



No. 14. Old, female, small. No peculiar markings. Received from Vermont, 

 April 8th. Died April 25th from failure to give birth to young. 



No. 15. Verj' old, female, large, very light brown. Received from Vermont, 

 April 8th. Died May 2nd after artificial parturition of young. 



No. 16. Old, male, very large, nearly black with a prominent crest of long, white 

 tipped hairs. Received from Vermont with Nos. 14 and 15. Died April 

 17th. Cause, congestion of the bowels completely stopping the alimentary 

 canal below the caecum. This animal was probably afflicted in this manner 

 when captured, but as he tamed easily was used in preliminary hand 

 reactions. 



In presenting the porcupine to students of psychology as a 

 subject for study in animal intelligence, a word should be said 

 in introduction. So far as the writer knows, the animals which 

 have here been under observation and experimentation are the 

 only ones of this species which have been employed in experi- 

 mental study. Nothing is clearer throughout the study than 

 that a knowledge of the undisturbed life habits is indispensable 

 to the evaluation of results obtained under controlled condi- 

 tions, however close those conditions ma}^ conform to the natural 

 environment. Consequently, a brief report is presented of a 

 rather extensive study into the natural habits of the porcupines. 

 The writer is indebted, in a way, to certain naturalists for obser- 

 vations, but most of the facts which are given, especially those 

 of chief interest to psA^chologists, have either been obtained at 

 first hand, or have been corroborated by a personal stud}^ of 

 the porcupines undisturbed in their natural haunts. 



BIOLOGICAL AND NATURALISTIC STUDY 



Distribution. — The Canada porcupine (Erethizon dorsatus), 

 commonly but erroneously called "hedgehog," is one of the 

 largest native rodents of North America. It ranges in habitat 

 as far north as timber is abundant. Formerly it was found as 

 far south as Mrginia and Kentucks^ but has, for the most part, 

 been exterminated below central Pennsylvania. The range west 

 extends to the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains, sometimes 

 reaching southward in the Pacific highlands even into ^lexico. 



