942 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



true of Bears, which also eat a great many Porcupines. In 

 eating Porcupines they do just as Bears do, turn them over on 

 their backs and eat out most of the meat, leaving the skin 

 nearly entire." 



Abundant corroboration is found in "Mammals of the 

 Adirondacks."-* "I was informed both by an agent of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company and by the trappers themselves 

 [says Merriam] that Porcupines constitute a large and im- 

 portant element in the food supply of the Pekan. Nap. A. 

 Comeau, of Godbout, who secured for me a large and hand- 

 some male of this species, tells me that its intestine contained 

 hundreds of Porcupine quills, arranged in clusters, like so many 

 packages of needles, throughout its length. In no case had a 

 single quill penetrated the mucous lining of the intestine, but 

 they were apparently passing along its interior as smoothly 

 and surely as if within a tube of glass or metal. 



"Mr. Comeau could not discover a quill in any of the 

 abdominal viscera, or anywhere in the abdominal cavity, ex- 

 cepting as above stated. A great many, however, were found 

 imbedded in the muscles of the head, chest, and back and legs, 

 and it was remarked that their presence gave rise to no irrita- 

 tion, no products of inflammation being discovered in their 

 vicinity. In examining the partially cleaned skeleton of this 

 specimen I still find some of the quills in the deep muscles and 

 ligaments about the joints. A knee, in particular, shows several 

 in its immediate neighbourhood. One is deeply imbedded in 

 the dense ligament alongside the patella; three lie parallel to 

 and close against the tibia, and two can be seen between it and 

 the fibula. 



"It is probable that all of these quills entered the body of 

 the animal while engaged in killing and devouring the Porcu- 

 pine, for those swallowed seemed to have caused no trouble 

 after having fairly entered the alimentary canal. Therefore, 

 there remains no question whatever that the Fisher feeds upon 

 the Porcupine, but I do not agree with Corporal Warfield in 

 the belief that the quills often prove fatal to it." 



» P. 49- 



