608 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



NON- 



This unwandering disposition, combined with the un- 

 GRANT changing abundance of its food, has resuked in the extermina- 

 tion of all migratory impulse, if it ever had any. 



NON- 



HIBER- 



NANT 



It does not need to hibernate, and is another proof of the 

 theory that, given abundance of food, most animals will adapt 

 themselves to any kind of climate. 



ENvi- Thick hemlock or jackpine woods are the Porcupine's 



choice. Occasionally it is found in the hardwood, if there be 

 also a sprinkling of conifers and a few elms, basswoods or aspens. 



RON- 

 MENT 



CREPUS- 

 CULAR 



NUM- 

 BERS 



Though it feeds and travels both by night and day, there 

 can be no doubt that, like most creatures, it prefers the soft 

 light of evening and early morning, taking advantage also of 

 the substitute furnished by moonlight. 



The Adirondack Mountains have more Porcupines than 

 any other region I have lived in, but i or 2 a day is all one 

 usually sees. There are, I suspect, few places to-day where 

 they are at all numerous. 



"In Labrador [says BelP] the Porcupine is met with as far 

 north as Nain, where it is common. It is met with everywhere 

 in the region between the Great Lakes and Hudson's Bay, but is 

 always scarce. Mr. Isbister, of the Nelson River House on the 

 Churchill, informs me that it was once abundant there. It is 

 rare between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson's Bay, but an in- 

 dividual is occasionally found as far north as York Factory." 



W. Case, of Cleveland, Ohio, wrote to Bachman, about 

 1840,^ that Porcupines were very abundant in the Western 

 Connecticut Reserve, "one person killed 7 or 8 in the course 

 of an afternoon's hunt for Squirrels within three or four miles 

 of this city." 



In certain of the Catskills to-day one may see a dozen 

 Porcupines in a night about the camp. This, however, means 



* Mam. Hud. Bay., Geol. Surv. Can., 1884, p. 49 DD. 

 «Aud. & Bach., Quad. N. A., 1849, Vol. I, pp. 285-6. 



