248 BULLETIN NO. VII. 



difficult for the predacious animals which might attempt their 

 capture than ever was chestnut to the inquisitive squirrel. 

 Under ordinary circumstances the larger animals do not attempt 

 to capture the porcupine, but during severe weather game be- 

 comes so scarce that the lynx and panther are driven to sacri- 

 fice future happiness to the urgent need of food. The porcupine 

 makes a famous dish when once safely "peeled," but sight and 

 even life itself is endangered in the process. 



We have received specimens of Lynx rufus with the head 

 filled with quills, some of which penetrated the orbit. Such 

 specimens are usually lean and apparently in a famished condi- 

 tion. Even the panther is sometimes found killed by the shafts 

 of this critie among beasts. 



Of course there is no truth in the current belief that the por- 

 cupine discharges its quills like a horrible animated gattling 

 gun, but it is said that by sudden lashings of its short tail quills 

 are fastened in the skin of its enemies. Once fastened, these 

 barbed quills penetrate with fearful pertinacity, every move- 

 ment of the body serving to drive them on. 



It is not generally known that this animal is a good swimmer. 

 He even voluntarily crosses large rivers and, on account of the 

 lightness of the body, stands so far above the surface as to ap- 

 pear like a very large animal. 



Although preferring the green inner bark of trees and new 

 shoots or succulent vegetable matter the porcupine is upon oc- 

 casion omnivorous. The taste of salt is greatly relished, and 

 pork skins and salt covered barrels are greedily eaten; even the 

 slight salty taste imparted by the hands attracts them, and the 

 implements of lumbermen suffer from their teeth. Indians re- 

 gard them, in their turn, as delicate food, but what the flavor 

 may be the writer has not ventured to discover. 



Of the winter or breeding habits we can say nothing from per- 

 sonal observation. It is said by trustworthy witnesses that 

 during the very coldest weather porcupines sometimes spend 

 days and weeks suspended in the tops of high trees apparently 

 in a state of suspended animation. 



It is stated that two young are produced at a birth (more 

 rarely three or four) and these are lodged in hollow trees or 

 like retreats until able to care for themselves. When startled 

 by the approach of man, they are said to utter cries like those 

 of a child. 



The porcupine makes its nest in a ledge of rocks or in a 

 hollow log. Its young, which are but one or two in number, 



