NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



adult lions are at times reckless enough to attack 

 Porcupines, for various hunters have mentioned 

 having killed fully adult lions in almost the last stages 

 of emaciation, whose paws were masses of horrible 

 discharging sores from the presence of porcupine 

 quills. 



Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton relates an instance 

 of an adult Lion which sprang upon a pack horse, 

 but so weak was he that the horse threw him off 

 with ease. When shot this Lion was found to be 

 almost in the skeleton condition, and his feet in a 

 dreadful state as the result of the presence of porcu- 

 pine quills. The quills do not always cause suppura- 

 tion. I have found quills embedded in lions' paws, 

 jaws and lips with the flesh healed up all round and 

 over them. 



Porcupines may be safely classed as vermin for, from 

 a human point of view, they are almost without 

 any redeeming quality. In death the quills are 

 useful, and the flesh is tender and palatable. Alive, 

 they are interesting specimens in Zoological Gardens, 

 but at large they cause considerable damage. 



The Porcupine is a rodent or gnawing class of 

 animal, and its diet is of a vegetable nature. Out in 

 the wilds, away from the habitations of man, its 

 food consists mainly of roots, bulbs and tubers 

 which it digs up. Nothing of an edible nature in 

 the vegetable world comes amiss to it. Should a 

 farmer's garden be within reach, it abandons its 

 ordinary food and, visiting his fields in the silent 

 182 



