THE PORCUPINE 



A Nocturnal Animal Bristling with Long Spines — Will Not Run From a Foe — Rolls Itself In 

 a Ball When Attacked — Cannot Throw Its Quills — Savages Use Quills As Decorations 



The traveler in East Africa never sees one of the strangest inhabitants of 

 the velt — the porcupine — unless he takes the trouble tO' dig for it, or is favored 

 by good fortune. The explanation is a simple one. The habits of the porcu- 

 pine are absolutely nocturnal. It spends the day in caves in the earth, from 

 which it only issues at night, and intoi which it retreats before dawn. Plenty 

 of c(uills were found by the American hunting expedition, but they never saw 

 the animal itself at large. A few specimens were secured from the natives, 

 who had dug them out of their burrows. 



One of them told Mr. Roosevelt that it sometimes takes a wdiole day to 

 secure one single specimen of this little shy and wary creature, whose burrows 

 stretch from twenty-five to fifty yards deep in the ground. 



Says a famous hunter : 



1 have a great deal of respect for the porcupine, and I have noticed that 

 his fellow animals have a like feeling toward him. In the first place, he 

 doesn't meddle wfth the affairs of others and he very quickly resents any 

 attempt to meddle with his affairs. He rarely hunts for a fight and he never 

 runs away from one. In all of the animal kingdom I do not believe there is 

 a more fearless creature. 



Conscious of his own powers of defense he seems to have a contempt 

 for other animals. In Africa and India lions and leopards attack him and 

 often kill him, but only after a hard fight, in which they receive many 

 wounds, which sometimes prove fatal, from his long spines, called quills. In 

 Western America I have known a mountain lion (puma) toi die of wounds 

 received in a fight with a porcupine. The wounds suppurated, causing 

 blood-poisoning, resulting in death. The other animals know that the por- 

 cupine is not afraid of them and that he is always ready to fight — hence they 

 respect him and usually leave him alone. 



The porcupine has long been rendered famous among men by the extra- 

 ordinary armory of pointed spears which it bears upon its back, and which 

 it was formerly fabled to launch at its foes with fatal precision. This remark- 

 able power of the rugged little creature has been thoroughly exploited and is 

 attributable to a real fact, of which few writers take cognizance. When 

 attacked the porcupine prepares for defense by rolling itself into a ball, 



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