THE PORCUPINES— TREE OR CLIMBING. 



357 



tucky, its eastern and western boundaries being Lab- 

 rador and the Rocky Mountains. It is not uncom- 

 mon in the forest regions to the west of the Mis- 

 souri, but it is nearly extinct in the east. " The Ur- 

 son," says Cartwright, "is an accomplished climber 

 and probably never descends a tree in winter, before 



URSON OR CANADIAN PORCUPINE. Formerly plentiful in the northern United States but now quite 



rare in this country, although not so scarce in Canada is the Urson. otherwise called the Canadian Porcupine, of 

 which an admirable illustration is here given. The strange, blunt head, the long, erectile hair interspersed with 

 spines, the four strong claws of the fore feet are shown in the animals here portrayed. {Ertthizon dorsatum.) 



it has entirely denuded the upper branches of bark. 

 It is most partial to the tenderest shoots or seedling 

 trees. A single Urson may ruin hundreds of them 

 during one winter." Audubon affirms that he has 

 passed through woods, in which all the trees had 

 been stripped by the Urson, producing an appear- 

 ance similar to that in- 

 duced when a forest has 

 been devastated by fire. 

 Elms, poplars and firs fur- 

 nish its favorite food, and 

 therefore usually suffer 

 more than other trees from 

 its destructiveness. 



The nest of the Urson is 

 generally found in holes in 

 trees or in rocky hollows, 

 and in it the young, usually 

 two, more rarely three or 

 four in number, are born in 

 April or May. Those that 

 are taken out of the nest 

 and kept in confinement, 

 unlike the common Euro- 

 pean Porcupine, soon be- 

 come accustomed to their 

 master and to their sur- 

 roundings. They may be 

 fed on all kinds of vegeta- 

 bles and are very fond of 

 bread. If given the free- 

 dom of the garden, they 



mount trees and eat the bark and leaves. Audubon 

 says that an Urson he had in his possession never 

 exhibited anger, except when some one tried to 

 remove it from a tree which it was in the habit of 

 mounting. " Our Urson had gradually become very 

 tame, and seldom made any use of its nails, so that 



we could occasionally open its cage and afford it the 

 pleasure of a free walk in the garden. It knew us: 

 when we called it, tempting it with a sweet potato 

 or an apple, it slowly turned its head toward us, 

 gave us a gentle, friendly look and then slowly 

 hobbled up to us, took the fruit out of our hands, 



sat down on its hind legs 

 and raised the food to its 

 mouth with its fore-paws. 

 Frequently, when it would 

 find the door of our room 

 open, it would come in, 

 approach and rub itself 

 against us, looking at us 

 pleadingly, as if asking for 

 some dainty. We tried in 

 vain to arouse it to an 

 exhibition of anger; it 

 never used its spines with 

 us. When a Dog came 

 in view, matters were dif- 

 ferent. Then it instantly 

 assumed the defensive. 

 With its nose lowered, all 

 its quills erect, and its tail 

 moving back and forth, it 

 was ready for the fray. 



"A large, ferocious and 



exceedingly troublesome 



Mastiff, belonging to the 



neighborhood, one day 



sprang upon the Urson 



with open mouth. The 



Porcupine seemed to swell up in an instant to nearly 



double its usual size, sharply watched the Dog and 



at the right moment dealt it such a well-aimed blow 



with its tail as to cause the Mastiff to lose courage 



in an instant and set up a loud howl in an agony of 



pain. His mouth, tongue and nose were full of Por- 



THE MEXICAN PORCUPINE. Among the Tree Porcupines the Mexican species is one of strongly 



marked physical peculiarities. The long curly hair, concealing to great extent the quills with which the animal 

 bristles, the prehensile tail, the strong claws and queer bewhiskered muzzle are all shown in the picture. (Cer- 

 colabes norte hispanice.) 



cupine quills. He could not close his jaws, but 

 hurried, open-mouthed, off the premises. Although 

 the servants immediately extracted the spines from 

 the mouth of the Dog, we observed that his head 

 was terribly swelled for several weeks afterwards, 

 and it was months before he finally recovered." 



