THE PORCUPINE. 343 



(for being so ugly, I suppose), and hence his dejected 

 appearance, but that at night he lifts up his head and runs 

 like a dog. This I shall believe when I see it ; but in 

 the meantime I can answer for his being a capital 

 climber. He knows this, and always makes for a tree 

 when pursued. When there is none within reach, he 

 does not turn and stand manfully to bay, but hides his 

 head in a hole or under a root, and exposes his stern to 

 the baffled pursuer. This he does because his head and 

 belly are unprotected the back and tail being thickly 

 studded with quills. When scalded with boiling water 

 the hair and quills scrape off easily ; the flesh is not bad 

 eating, something like pork with a soupgon of spruce 

 about it. The only wild animals that prey upon them 

 are the pekan and the bear. Their food is the bark 

 of the spruce, the maple, and . other wood. In winter, 

 when they come across a tree that suits their taste, they 

 camp under it, and peel it from stem to top. They do 

 not den regularly like the bear, but have a snug lodging 

 under a dead tree or a heap of bushes, from whence they 

 come out daily for food, travelling, however, very short 

 distances in the deep snow. The female has one or two 

 young ones early in the spring, which she is said to wean 

 by tapping the sugar maple and making the cubs lick up 

 the sap ; but this (the statement, not the sugar) must be 

 taken with a grain of salt. They certainly do tap the 

 maples in the sugar season, and are fond of sweets, and, 

 like the bear, they have been known to steal molasses. 



The wolf (Canis lupus occidentalis, var. griseus). This 

 is a wandering animal, sometimes found in one district, 

 sometimes in another, its movements depending a good 



