126 RODENTS OF IOWA 



CANADA PORCUPINE. 



Erethizon. dorsatum dorsatum (Linnasus). 



[Hystrix] dorsata Linnteus, Syst. Nat., X ed., I, 57, 1758. 



Description. — Hairs of upper parts mixed with quills or spines, 

 the hairs long and entirely or almost concealing the quills on the 

 lower back, hips, and sides of base of tail ; general color above 

 dark brown to nearly black varied with yellowish white ; quills 

 white at base, the apical third usually black; often a few qaills 

 are entirely black or white ; length of quills variable, the longest 

 from three to four inches ; color beneath brownish black. 



Measurements. — Total length, 35.00 inches; tail vertebra, 5.50 

 inches; hind foot, 3.50 inches. 



The wT^ter has been unable to find any recent records of the 

 Canada porcupine in Iowa, but it is probable that in earlier days 

 the species occurred sparingly in the northern and particularly 

 in the northeastern part of the state. With the cutting of the 

 forests and the settling of the country the animals have practically 

 disappeared. J. A. Spurrell writes that a porcupine was killed in 

 Grant City (Sac county) in 1854. T. Van Hyning gives the fol- 

 lowing record : "In about 1908 ' some hounds in the same section, ' 

 Allamakee County, 'were badly stuck up by porcupine quills, 

 which had to be pulled from their mouths. Last summer, on French 

 Creek, Allamakee County, I saw some scrub Hemlocks freshly cut 

 and gnawed by porcupines.' Geo. H. Berry, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 

 April 8, 1913. "29 



HARES AND RABBITS. 

 Family LEPORID/E. 



The members of this family are widely distributed throughout 

 the United States but only two fonns are at all common in Iowa. 

 A great number of subspecies and geographical races have Iieen 

 described and this leads to some confusion in the matter of de- 

 termining them. Two genera, probably represented in Iowa by 

 but four species, make the task of separating our forms less ar- 

 duous. Two of the Iowa forms herein discussed occur very rarely 

 in the state, so that there is little danger of confusion. 



Ordinarily the terms hare and rabbit are used interchangeably 

 as applying to members of this family; but properly, the word 

 hane is restricted to those forms which do not live in burrows in 



29Van Hyning, T., Proc. la. Acad. Sci., XX, 311, 1913. 



