DERIVATION OF PORCUPINE 



spelling, and tending to the concealment of the origin 

 of its name, illustrate the principal external feature of 

 this large rodent. You cannot, however, tell the " war- 

 like porcupine " by its quills ; for such thick, solid and 

 sharp hairs, they are nothing else, are common, not 

 only among rodents, but in the insectivora, and even 

 in the spiny anteater of Australia, which is a representa- 

 tive of the most ancient type of mammal known. How 

 then is a porcupine to be distinguished from an over- 

 grown rat, a magnified representative of the spiny 

 mice ? For one thing, it has spines on its tail, which the 

 spiny mice have not. But to be absolutely certain, 

 recourse must be had to bony and other internal char- 

 acters. The porcupines are also larger than any other 

 spiny rodent, and there is of course no possibility of 

 confusing them with sharp-nosed and sharp-toothed 

 hedgehog, or Centetes. The tail will betray the mouse 



Show him a mouse's tail and he will guess 

 With metaphysic swiftness at the mouse 



and at the Porcupine. The spines have of course 

 given its name to the Porcupine. But it is not certain 

 whether the derivation from '* Pore Epic," i.e. pig- 

 spine, is correct, or the more probable " Porte Epic," 

 i.e. spine bearer. As to the pig alternative, the fond- 

 ness for calling beasts pigs with a qualification, is uni- 

 versal. The porpoise is the pig fish ; the " Porcus 

 marinus " of the ancients was a beast of some kind, 

 but one does not know what. The only claim which 

 the porcupine puts forth to this derivation is that, 

 according to the Indian naturalist, Jerdon, the flesh 

 of t the porcupine resembles roast pig, with a dash 

 of veal, however, a flavour that seems, according to 

 travellers and gastronomic experimenters, to be the 

 flavour of almost everything new to the palate. The 

 spines enter largely into the genuine natural history of 

 the porcupine, as well as into legend. They are plainly 



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