196 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP, vn 



porcupine, have, short, close, many-colored spines, 

 and a long, tapering, distinctly prehensile tail, 

 that forms a fifth hand equal to that of the 

 monkey or opossum. The soles of their feet, 

 too, are provided with a peculiar fleshy pad on 

 the inner side, " between which and the toes 

 boughs and other objects can be firmly grasped." 

 Two of them the couiy and the coendou are 

 familiar to the people of Guiana, Brazil, and 

 Bolivia; and, in the former, the spines which 

 may be erected are ordinarily covered by long 

 gray hairs, which, we are told, effectually conceal 

 the animal from the notice of predatory birds, 

 as it lies asleep during the day, heaped up in an 

 indistinguishable mass in the fork of some moss- 

 draped tree. Of the coendou, in the island of 

 Trinidad, a curious fact is recorded by Mr. Frank 

 M. Chapman, Bulletin Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. V, 

 p. 227, as follows : 



"The presence of this arboreal species [Syne- 

 theres prchcnsilis~\ is made known by the nauseat- 

 ing odor it gives forth. This is especially noticeable 

 in the early morning when the air is humid and 

 before the daily trade-winds begin to blow. In 

 walking through the forests at this time, it was not 

 unusual to encounter odoriferous strata of air pro- 

 ceeding from individuals of this species. So dense, 

 however, was the parasitic vegetation on the trees 

 in which they conceal themselves, that they were 

 practically invisible from below. . 



