112 NATURAL HISTORY. 



slender stalks. The American Indians use the quills extracted 

 from the Canada Porcupine, a species living on trees, for orna- 

 menting various parts of their dress, especially their mocassins 

 or skin shoes. In England the quills are much used by anglers 

 for making fine floats. The length of the Porcupine is ahout 

 two feet, and its spines or quills are from six to fourteen inches 

 long. 



Sub-family c. Dasyproctina. 

 DASYPROCTA. (Gr. Aacrvf, rough ; Trpw/crof, hind-quarters.) 



Aguti, the Agouti. 



The AGOUTI lives in Brazil, Guiana and Paraguay. It is 

 about the size of a rabbit, and like that animal is generally 

 found in company. In Brazil and Guiana, the Agouti is much 

 sought after for the sake of its flesh, but it appears that in Pa- 

 raguay the flesh is not eaten. When pursued, it runs for a short 

 time with much rapidity, but soon endeavours to conceal kself 

 in a hole or under the roots of a tree, when it will suffer itself 

 to be captured without any resistance, merely uttering a plaint- 

 ive cry. It feeds on vegetables, especially yams and tubers, but 

 in the West India Islands it devours the sugar canes, and is a 

 great pest to the planters. 



