OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 25 



body together with quills bristling, they lie in fancied security. Nor 

 are they far wrong so far as other animals than man are concerned. 



The porcupine offers great inducements to wild cat or panther, 

 which, nevertheless, never tempt these animals to attack the quill 

 pig except in greatest extremity. We have received specimens of 

 Lynx rufus with the head filled with the quills, some of them even 

 entering the orbit. Even the panther is sometimes destroyed by these 

 barbed weapons. 



While there is no truth in the current belief that the porcupine 

 discharges its quills voluntarily, yet it appears that by lashing its tail 

 it may lodge some of the barbs in the skin of its enemy. Once fast- 

 ened, these quills strike inward with great pertinacity and every move- 

 ment serves to propel them onward. 



Although preferring succulent vegetation or the green inner bark 

 of poplars, etc., the porcupine is, upon occasion, omniverous. 



The taste of salt is greatly relished and pork skins and barrels in 

 which brine has been kept are greedily eaten, even the slight saline 

 taste imparted by the hands to oars and ax- helves attracts them, and 

 the implements of the lumbermen often suffer from their teeth. The 

 Indians regard them in their turn as delicate food and prize it highly, 

 as we had occasion to learn in barter for a specimen. 



The porcupine is a good swimmer, voluntarily crossing large 

 rivers. Being so fat the body is relatively light and protrudes greatly 

 above water. 



It is stated by careful observers that during the very coldest 

 weather these animals sometimes pass days and weeks swinging pen- 

 dent in the tree tops, literally in a state of suspended animation. 



The one or two young are brought forth in May and are propor- 

 tionally larger than in any other rodent. Dr. Merriam mentions one 

 which weighed over one and one-fourth pounds prior to birth, being 

 1 1 5^ inches long. A full grown male measures three feet in total 

 length. 



