THE CANADIAN PORCUPINE. 



It climbs the trees and strips them clean 



Of leaf, and fruit, and bark; 

 Then, creeping- where no life is seen, 



O'er branches grim and stark. 

 Begins anew, the bark beneath. 

 The endless grind of claws and teeth, 

 Till trees, denuded, naked rise 

 Like spectres painted on the skies. 



Fretful it may be, as its quills are sharp, 

 But with its teeth it stills the sylvan harp. 



C. C. M. 



FORMERLY plentiful in the 

 northern United States, but now 

 quite rare in this country, 

 although not so scarce in Can- 

 ada, is the Urson, otherwise called the 

 Canadian Porcupine. It is the tree or 

 climbing species and is distinguished 

 from other members of the family by 

 its slender body and tail of greater or 

 less length. The Urson attains a length 

 of thirty-two inches, seven and one- 

 half of which are included in the tail. 

 A thick set fur, which attains a length 

 of four and one-half inches on the nape 

 of the neck and changes into sharp 

 spines on the under parts of the body 

 and the tip of the tail, clothes the ani- 

 mal. 



The Canadian Porcupine is a native 

 of the forests of North America, rang- 

 ing as far south as Virginia and Ken- 

 tucky and as far west as the Rocky 

 Mountains. "The Urson,'' says Cart- 

 wright, "is an accomplished climber 

 and probably never descends a tree in 

 winter, before it has entirely denuded 

 the upper branches of bark. It is most 

 partial to the tenderest roots or seed- 

 ling trees. A single Urson may ruin 

 hundreds of them during one winter." 

 Audubon states that he passed through 

 woods, in which all the trees had been 

 stripped by this animal, producing an 

 appearancesimilar to that induced when 

 a forest has been devastated by fire. 

 Elms, Poplars, and Firs furnish its fa- 

 vorite food, and therefore usually suf- 

 fer more than other trees from its de- 

 structiveness. 



The nest of this Porcupine is gener- 

 ally found in holes in trees or rocky 

 hollows, and in it the young, usually 

 two, more rarely three or four in num- 

 ber, are born in April or May. The 



young are easily tamed. Audubon says 

 that one which he possessed never ex- 

 hibited anger, except when some one 

 tried to remove it from a tree which it 

 was in the habit of mounting. It had 

 gradually become very tame and sel- 

 dom made any use of its nails, so that 

 he would open its cage and afford it a 

 free walk in the garden. When he 

 called it, tempting it with a sweet po- 

 tato or an apple, it turned its head 

 toward him, gave him a gentle, friendly 

 look and then slowly hobbled up to 

 him, took the fruit out of his hand, sat 

 down on its hind legs and raised the 

 food to its mouth with its fore-paws. 

 Frequently when it would find the door 

 of the family room open it would enter, 

 approach and rub itself against a mem- 

 ber of the family looking up pleadingly 

 as if asking for some dainty. Audu- 

 bon tried in vain to arouse it to an ex- 

 hibition of anger. When a Dog came 

 in view matters were different. Then 

 it instantly assumed the defensive. 

 With its nose lowered, all its quills 

 erect, and its tail moving back and 

 forth, it was ready for the fray. The 

 Dog sprang upon the Porcupine with 

 open mouth. That animal seemed to 

 swell up in an instant to nearly double 

 its size, sharply watched the Dog and 

 at the right moment dealt it such a 

 well-aimed blow with its tail that the 

 Mastiff lost courage and set up a loud 

 howl of pain. His mouth, tongue, and 

 nose were full of Porcupine quills. He 

 could not close his jaws, but hurried 

 open-mouthed off the premises. 

 Although the spines were immediately 

 extracted, the Dog's head was terribly 

 swollen for several weeks afterward, 

 and it was months before he entirely 

 recovered. 



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