12 BRUSH-TAILED PORCUPINE. 



Common Porcupine, and of a peculiar shape, being 

 a little flattened, and channeled with a longitudinal 

 furrow ; they are white at the point, and black in 

 the middle, and many of them are black above 

 and white below ; and from this mixture results a 

 varying cast of black and white over the whole 

 body of the animal. 



This species, like others of its genus (which 

 Nature seems to have provided with defensive 

 weapons only), possesses a kind of instinctive 

 fierceness : when approached it stamps with its 

 feet, and appears to inflate itself, raising and 

 shaking its quills. It sleeps much by day, and is 

 active only by night. It eats in a sitting pos- 

 ture ; holding apples and other fruits between its 

 paws, peeling them with its teeth : it is particularly 

 pleased with stone fruits, and especially with apri- 

 cots : it will also eat melons, and is never observed 

 to drink. The above description was drawn up 

 from two of these animals in a living state, at 

 Paris, in the year 1777. 



