$28 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Tue Porcupine, Hystrix cristata. 
In Hamlet, Act i., Scene 5, occurs the oft-quoted line— 
“ Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.” 
The Duke of York, speaking of the rebel Jack Cade, remarks— 
“In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade 
Oppose himself against a troop of Kernes ; 
And fought so long, till that his thighs with darts 
Were almost like a sharp-quill’d porcupine.” 
Tue Hare, Lepus tumidus. 
Even in Shakspeare’s day coursing appears to have been a 
popular amusement. In the amusing farce with the drunken 
tinker, a servant asks— 
* Say thou wilt course: thy greyhounds are as swift 
As breathéd stags, ay, fleeter than the roe.” 
Taming of the Shrew. Induction, Scene 2. 
“Tf I fly, Marcius, 
Halloo me like a hare.” : 
Coriolanus. Act i., Scene 8. 
Tue Rass, Lepus cuniculus. 
With our mischievous little friend the Rabbit we conclude our 
notes on “ The Mammals of Shakspeare,” merely quoting a remark 
of the much-abused but amusing Falstaff— 
“ Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in 
word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker.” 
Henry IV. Part I., Act ii., Scene 4. 
In the foregoing brief notes mention has been made of forty-one 
animals—fere nature. The allusions made to them by Shak- 
speare, although in many cases almost trivial in their nature, | 
exhibit nevertheless an acquaintance with many peculiarities of 
haunt and habit which, as regards the indigenous animals, could 
only have been acquired by close observation in the woods and 
fields. In regard to the species which he would not be likely to 
meet with in this country, reading and memory evidently served 
him in good stead. 
