QUADRUPEDS. 300 



very distant points of Africa, Barbary and the Cape of 

 Good Hope. It is also founiiin India, Persia, Greece, Italy, 

 and Sicily. Mr. Brydone imbrms us, in his Tour, that it 

 is frequent in that island in the district of Baiae, and that 

 he killed several during a shooting party on the Monte Bar- 

 baro. He dined upon his game, but found it luscious and 

 soon palling upon the appetite. The singular aspect of 

 this animal seems to have attracted the attention of the 

 lovers of nature at a very early period, and many fabulous 

 properties were added to the true character of a creature in 

 itself sufficiently curious. It was said to possess the power 

 of darting its quills at pleasure with great force, and to a 

 considerable distance, against its enemies. There is no 

 doubt, that when agitated either by fear or anger, it bristles 

 up its quills, rattles them against each other as an Indian 

 warrior might his quiver full of arrows, and that in this 

 temporary agitation a quill may be occasionally thrown out, 

 and might even settle itself in the body of an adversary ; 

 but they are essentially fixed, though not immoveable organs, 

 and can no more be parted with in self-defence than the 

 spines of the hedgehog. Claudian, however, observes, that 

 the porcupine is himself at once the bow, the quiver, and 

 the arrow, which he employs against the hunters, — 



Ecce, brevis propriis munitur bestia telis, 

 Extemam nee quterit opem, fert omnia secum, 

 Se pharetra, sese jaculo, sese uiitur arcu I 



The porcupine feeds chiefly on roots, fruits, and other 

 vegetable produce. It dwells in subterranean retreats, and 

 comes abroad more frequently during the night than the day. 



We come now to the hares and rabbits, a genus widely 

 distributed from the shores of Hudson's Bay to the Straits 

 of Magellan, and from Siberia to Bengal. The common 

 rabbit {Lepus cunicidus) is supposed to have been originally 

 introduced from Africa into Spain, and to have been ex- 

 tended from the latter country over the rest of Europe. 



The Egyptian hare (Lepus Egyptius) occurs also at the 

 Cape of Good Hope. The ears and hind legs are propor- 

 tionally longer than those of the European species. The 

 anterior legs appear to have only four toes, owing to the 

 thumb or mner toe being very small. Its fUr, though not 



