THE BEAVER. 



363 



hatters, is obtained from the coypou, or quoiya (Myopotamus 

 coipus), a South American animal less than the beaver, but 

 resembling it in many respects. 



A substance employed in medicine under the name of Castor, 

 is obtained from two large glandular pouches of the beaver, 

 situated in the male behind the prepuce, and in the female at 

 the upper edge of the orifice of the vagina, where they open. 

 The castor completely fills the pouches, but has a cavity in 

 the centre, a character which at once distinguishes the genuine 

 article from the spurious substitute. Previous to removal, the 

 secretion is rather soft ; but, when taken out, it dries though 

 it does not become hard. Virgil, in his first Georgia (line 59), 

 applies the epithet virosa to it, because it possesses a very 

 powerful and disagreeable odour, and a sharp, bitter taste. 



THE CRESTED, OR COMMON PORCUPINE.* 



(Hystrix cristata, Linn.) 



In Europe, the crested porcupine inhabits the south of Italy, 

 Spain, and Sicily ; and in Africa, it inhabits Barbary. George 



* In Stowe's Chronicle of the years 1117, 1135 ; Roger Ascham's Works, by 

 James Bennett, p. 66 ; and throughout the old editions of Shakespeare's 

 Plays, the porcupine is called porpentine. At the present day in some parts 

 of England the hedgehog, which used to be classed with it, is called &porpin. 



