AMERICAN PORCUPINES 125 



Definite locality records are not at hand for this form, and ob- 

 servers and collectors should be on the lookout for specimens so 

 that the distribution within the state may be definitely worked 

 out. 



AMERICAN PORCUPINES. 

 Family ERETHIZONTID. 



The American Porcupines are so entirely different from our 

 other rodents, or, indeed, from any other group of mammals that 

 they are readily distinguished. In North America the family is 

 represented by a single genus which contains five forms, while 

 South and Central America have representatives placed in other 

 genera. These latter have long tails fitted for grasping while the 

 North American species have short, blunt and spiny tails. All 

 the American forms are short-legged, slow-moving, more or less 

 arboreal animals with a thick body-covering of hairs mixed with 

 quills. A good deal of superstition has been associated with these 

 quills. While they are loosely attached to the skin of the animal 

 and become detached very easily, the animal is not able to "shoot" 

 them at an adversary as has been so often stated. These quills 

 are barbed or serrate, so that if they once become embedded in the 

 skin the efforts of the victim to remove them will usually only 

 cause the quill to work into the flesh still mors deeply. 



The porcupine inhabits forests and spends most of its time in 

 trees, from which it obtains a large share of its food. Leaves, 

 twigs, and bark of maple, basswood, birch, and hemlock are most 

 preferred; but others are utilized when these are not available. 

 ''In Canada and in the northern portion of Michigan and Wis- 

 consin they frequent the vicinity of lumber camps and show a 

 decided fondness for any substance which has a salty flavor, ?uch 

 as old pork rinds, and they have often been known to gnaw to 

 pieces old butter firkins and boxes which have contained salty 

 food of any kind." 28 



Porcupines are, in the main, nocturnal in habits, though they 

 occasionally wander forth in the daytime. On the ground their 

 movements are slow and awkward and they depend for safety 

 upon the formidable array of sharply pointed and barbed spines. 



Chas. B., Mammals of Illinois and Wisconsin : Pub. Field Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., Zoo}. Ser. XI, 257, 1912. 



