136 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



TREE PORCUPINE. 



their feet are also specially adapted for this particular mode of activity, and they are said even to climb 

 the palm-trees in order to feed upon their fruit. They are nocturnal in their habits, passing the day 

 in sleep concealed in the fork of a branch, and going abroad at night in search of their food, which 

 consists of fruits of various kinds, and the buds, leaves, and even flowers, of the trees on which they 

 live. Roots also form a part of their nourishment, probably when they reside rather among thickets 

 than in the high forest. Their spines, although short when compared with those of the Common 

 Porcupine, are formidable defensive weapons when the animal erects them ; in some species, as especi- 

 ally in the Couiy, they are concealed, when depressed, by the long hair, and, according to Hensel, this 

 serves as a protection to the animal from rapacious birds, for, when it sits in a heap, sleeping away 

 the daylight, these soft grey hairs give it a most deceptive resemblance to a mass of the beard-moss 

 which so commonly grows on the trees in the Brazilian forests. 



The URSON, or CANADA PORCUPINE (Erythizon dorsatus), the only North American species of the 

 family, according to Mr. Allen, although other writers distinguish two or three such forms, is about 

 two feet or more in length when full grown, and is covered with woolly hair, and with long coarse 

 hair of a dark brown colour, with the points white or yellowish, this difference in the colour of the 

 tips of the hairs being the chief distinction between the two varieties which Mr. Allen recognises. 

 The spines in both forms are white, with the points usually dusky or brown. The Canada 

 Porcupine is distributed through the whole of the Eastern United States, except on the sea- 

 board, from New York to Virginia, and north of the States through Canada, as far as the limit of 

 trees. The Western Porcupine, whicli has the tips of the long hairs yellowish (whence it has received 

 the name E. epixantkus), occurs west of the Missouri river, extending to the Pacific shores and going 

 southward along the mountains to Arizona and New Mexico, and northwards at least as far as Alaska 

 and Sitka. 



Although a heavy and clumsy-looking beast, and destitute of the prehensile tail of its South 

 American cousins, this Porcupine is a good climber, and passes nearly the whole of its life upon trees ; 

 nevertheless, according to Mr. Allen, it may be met with travelling upon the prairies, probably on its way 

 from one suitable residence to another. On the ground it moves slowly, but its armature of spines is 

 a protection against most of its enemies, and it has the art of striking very forcible and judicious blows 

 with its spiny tail. Audubon and Bachmann mention many cases in whicli Dogs, Wolves, and even 

 a Puma were found dead or dying in consequence of the severe inflammation caused by the spines of 

 this animal sticking about their mouths ; and the former gives an interesting account of a lesson in 



