'////: CANADIAN POJtC't I'lM:, tin t KSOJf. 471 



Tt MM. i \it.ED PORCUPINE is even a more singular animal than tliat which has 



jn-t U--n 



The quills which cover the body are very short in proj .onion to the aixe of the animal, and 



iiiMt-ad oi i !- M in_ 11.. mated, !! > -.:-! ' . ! tb MdtaKrj Pftrcupin.- qoflh, w 



ti.itt.-u.-.i iik,- -., m:m\ M.I.I. >,,;_!.,- rii<- taflbmlj BB0^fcoo*on>i< It-ruble |..n.,i n- 



length. I'ut at the tip is garnished with a tuft of must , 1111:11 \ looking objects, wl.i.h 



<-an luirdly lie called hairs or quills, but, an HuiTon remarks, look \. t\ lik- luirrow, irregular 

 strips of parchment. The coloring of the quills is rather various, but, an a general rul . i li.-\ 

 uiv black to\\anl- th. --xt n-imt \ nnl *hit< toward* bM HUM an vt-r\ -!,..i pi> |x>int< I, 



and are remarkable for a deep groove that runs along th<*ir -ntin- h-nuth. I ion the lu-sid tin- 

 <iuills are not more than one inc-li long, but on tin- middle of the body they rearh four or -w -n 

 five inches. Among these quills there are a few long and very slender spines or briM !*. w lii'-li 

 project beyond the others. 



The Tufted -tailed Porcupine has been found at Fernando Po, and is an inhabitant of 

 India and the lYninsula of Malacca. 



THE URSON, CAWQUAW, or CANADIAN PORCUPIXE, is a native of North America, where it 

 is most destructive to the trees among which it lives. 



Its chief food consists of living bark, which it strips from the branches as cleanly as if 

 it had been furnished with a sharp knife. When it begins to feed, it ascends the tree, 

 commences at the highest branches, and eats its way regularly downward. Having finished 

 one tree, it takes to another, and then to a third, always choosing tho*- that run in the same 

 line ; so that its path through the woods may easily be traced by the line of barked and 

 dying trees which it l.-avt-s in its truck. A single I'rson has been known to destroy a hun- 

 dred trees in a single winter, and another is recorded as having killed some two or tlm-- 

 acres of timber. 



It is a tolerably quiet animal, and easily tamed ; although -nl.j.-<-t to sudden fits of alarm 

 at any strange object. One of these animals was so entirely domesticated, as to conn- volun- 

 tarily, and take vegetables or fruit from the hand of its master, and would rub itself against 

 him aft-r the manner of an affectionate cat. When irritated or alarmed, it has n furious 

 habit of striking sharply with its tail, which is thickly set with short quills, and rau-inir no 

 small damage to the object of attack. In the work of Messrs. Audubon and Ilachtnan is a 

 very amusing little story of the manner in which the tame Urson above mentioned repelled 

 an attack made upon it by a fierce dog. 



