612 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



E. P. Bicknell says of those in the Catskills:^^ *'The 

 seeming nocturnal temerity of these creatures appeared to be 

 simply an exhibition of excessive stupidity. It was found 

 impossible to drive them from the camp for any length of time; 

 they seemed to be destitute of the faculty of memory, and even 

 a light charge of shot sent among them was only for the 

 moment effectual. Even when one particularly stupid indi- 

 vidual had been shot dead in the doorway, trying to effect an 

 entrance by gnawing its way through a gap, another, shortly 

 after, continued the operation beside the lifeless body of his 

 companion." 



FOOD In the winter its native food is supposed to be exclusively 



the bark and twigs of hemlocks, aspen, jackpines, elm, bass- 

 wood, Cottonwood, and other trees; of these Its favourite Is 

 hemlock. Its method of feeding Is thus described by Mer- 

 riam:^* "When he has selected and settled himself in a tree 

 to his liking, he may not leave it day or night until he has 

 denuded It of the whole of Its foliage. I have seen many hem- 

 locks thus completely stripped, not a green twig remaining, 

 even on the smallest bough. It seems Incredible that so large 

 and clumsy an animal should be able to climb out far enough 

 on the branches to reach the terminal leaves; but he dis- 

 tributes his weight by bringing several branches together, 

 and then, with his powerful paws, bends back their ends and 

 passes them through his mouth. When high in the tree tops 

 he is often passed unnoticed, mistaken, If seen at all, for the 

 nest of a crow or hawk." 



Audubon and Bachman credit ^^ a Porcupine with destroy- 

 ing a hundred trees in a winter, by girdling the bark. There 

 Is a tradition In the north-west that the Porcupine never kills 

 a tree if he can help it, carefully avoiding a complete girdling 

 of the bark. In jackpine woods I have seen a great many 

 instances that looked like this. But the fact is, the Porcupine 

 climbs up to some comfortable crotch, and then gnaws at all 



" Loc. cit. ' " Mam. Adir., 1884, p. 302. 



'^ Quad. N. A., 1849, Vol. I, p. 28.3 



