PORCUPINE 



Erethizon dorsatus. 



Few animals afford a better example of the protection which 

 Nature devises to preserve from extinction certain species than does 

 this armor-clad inhabitant of the deep forests from southern Maine 

 and the mountains of Pennsylvania as far north as Hudson Bay. 

 It is not of large size, measuring only about three feet in length, in- 

 cluding the nine-inch tail, and weighing about thirty pounds. ' Neith- 

 er is there any beauty of coloring or of texture in its dark brown 

 hair, which almost conceals the short gray-tipped quills. In these 

 last, however, although they are but from one to four inches long, 

 lies the chief interest of this curious animal. As long as he is un- 

 disturbed, his coat of mail rests quietly thrown back over the body 

 and, on first acquaintance, may deceive even the crafty wild folk of 



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