MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 249 
_are born about the first of May and are very large, being act- 
ually larger and relatively more than thirty times larger than 
the young of the black bear at birth. Merriam says: ‘‘ May 
1st, 1882, I shot at Big Moose Lake, a female porcupine which 
contained a foetus that would certainly have been born within 
two or three days. It weighed one and one-quarter pounds 
avoirdupois (567 grammes), and measured in total length eleven 
and one-fourth inches (285 mm.), the head and body measuring 
about seven and three-fourths inches (just 195 mm.). It was 
densely covered with long black hair, and the quills on its 
back measured over half an inch (18 mm.) in length. The dis- 
coid placenta measured two and one-quarter inches (57 mm.) 
in diameter.” 
The first mention of the porcupine which I have found in 
works treating of animals from Minnesota is the following 
from Carver’s Travels (p. 423) which, while rather more ac- 
curate than most of his descriptions, contains several errors: 
‘<The body is covered with hair of a dark brown, about four 
inches long, a great part of which are of the thickness of a 
straw and are termed quills. These are white with black 
points, hollow and very strong, especially those of the back. 
The quills serve this creature for offensive and defensive wea- 
pons, which he darts out at his enemies and if they pierce the 
flesh in the least degree, they will sink quite into it, and are 
not to be extracted without incision. The Indians use them 
for boring their ears and noses to insert their pendants, and 
also by way of ornament to their stockings, hair, etc., besides 
which they greatly esteem their flesh.” 
Carver also enumerates the ‘‘hedgehog”’, but does not de- 
scribe or again mention it. What may be meant I am at a loss 
to conjecture. 
The following measurements indicate the size of a full-grown 
male: Nose to anus, 2 ft.; girth, 2.4; tail, 11 in.; hind foot, 
4.3; longest claw of hind foot, 1.1; claw of pollex, 0.7; longest 
claw of fore foot, 1.1; tibia, 6; fore leg, 5; upper incisor, 0.9; 
lower incisor, 1.2; nose to eye, 1.9; nose to ear, 3.7; width of 
muzzle over 2; hight of muzzle from end of upper incisor, 2.2; 
eye, 0.5. ' 
The general color is vandyke brown, the quills being yellow- 
ish white with brown points. The long hairs, white with dark 
bands. The outer part of the fur is lighter brown. There is 
a light stripe on either side the tail, but below it is nearly black 
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