Section IV., 1909. [ 29 ] Trans. R. S. C. 



III. — The Canada Porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum (F. Cuvier). 

 By Egbert Bell, M.D., D.Sc, F.E.S. 



(Read May 25th, 1909.) 



The Canada porcupine has a very wide geographical range in North 

 America. His food being almost exclusively the bark of the white 

 spruce, his distribution coincides with the great region in which that 

 tree grows. He is thus found everywhere across the continent, along 

 the verge of the forest in the north, eastward to the Atlantic coast of 

 Labrador and down to the New England States, and from the wide coni- 

 ferous forests of the north, southwestward to the prairie regions of the 

 west and to the deciduous forests around the Great Lakes of the St. Law- 

 rence. Owing to the narrow limits of the extension of the white spruce in 

 the Adirondacks and southward in the Appalachian range, as well as to 

 the presence of the white man, the porcupine is nearly extinct in these 

 regions. On account of his sluggish and non-migratory habits as well 

 as his usual scarcity in any one locality, the actual presence of this 

 animal had been noted only here and there in our vast north country in 

 earlier times, but as it becomes more and more explored, the localities 

 of his ascertained occurrence continue to increase and it may now be 

 said that he is known to exist in small numbers in almost all parts of 

 the white spruce territory. In addition to the bark of the white spruce, 

 the porcupine occasionally eats the inner bark of the canoe birch. 



Although the porcupine is neither gregarious nor migratory, he 

 appears to become for some years more numerous in certain districts 

 than the average in similar country. From 1850 to 1870 and probably 

 for a long time prior to that period the porcupine was more common in 

 the Gaspé peninsula than it was known to be in any other part of the 

 continent and this relative abundance may still continue. Here the 

 physical character of the country and the climate are congenial, its 

 food is everywhere plentiful and here the porcupine seems to have his 

 favourite home. 



The writer having spent three seasons, surveying and exploring in 

 this region during the above period, had good opportunities for observing 

 the porcupine and he has since made many notes on its natural history 

 in nearly all other parts of the Dominion where it is found. At the 

 time referred to, many of the settlers around the coasts of the Gaspé 

 peninsula depended largely on the porcupine for their fresh meat in 

 winter. Around Gaspé bay, it was a common thing for a family to have 



