408 THE COMMON PORCUPINE. 



that the Porcupines, when much provoked, dart 

 their quills at the object by which they are enraged. 

 This opinion, however, has been fully refuted by 

 many accurate naturalists, who have taken pains to 

 inquire into the matter. The usual method of de- 

 fence adopted by these animals, is to recline them- 

 selves on one side ; and, on the approach of thei"" 

 enemy, to rise up quickly, and gore him with the 

 erected prickles of their other side. It is also said, 

 that when the Porcupine meets with serpents, against 

 whom he carries on a perpetual war, he closes him- 

 self up like a ball, concealing his head and feet, and 

 then rolls upon and kills them with his bristles, 

 without running any risk of being wounded him- 

 self*. — M. Le Vaillant says, that, owing to some 

 pernicious quality in the quills, one of his Hotten- 

 tots, who had received a wound in the leg from a 

 Porcupine, was ill for more than six months. He 

 also informs us, that a Gentleman, at the Cape, in 

 teazing one of these animals, received a wound in 

 the leg, which nearly occasioned his loss of the 

 limb ; and notwithstanding every possible care, he 

 suffered severely from it for above four months, dur^ 

 ing one of which he was confined to his bed -1^. 



When the animal is moulting, or casting its quills, 

 it sometimes shakes them off with so much force, 

 that they will fly to the distance of a few yards, and 

 even bend their points against any hard substance 

 they happen to strike. — It may have been this 

 circumstance which gave rise to the report of its 



Shaw, ii. f Vaillaut's Travels, i. 321. 



