THE COENDOO, OR BRAZILIAN PORCUPINE. 473 
manner of using the quilis as means of defence. In the Park Collection was an adult Canada 
Porcupine, in a box with a small rabbit. Each animal kept as far from the other as possible, 
but in an unlucky moment the rabbit chanced to approach near the Porcupine, when in an 
instant the tail of the latter was struck against the rabbit, leaving hundreds of the smaller 
quills studding his face and shoulders. Like the African species, the larger and longer quills 
are for ornament ; the weapons are the small ones massed just over the rump and base of tail. 
The motion is so quick it easily escapes notice, hence the uninformed observer is ready to believe 
that the quills are thrown out. 
This animal was common in 
Massachusetts during the first half 
of this century. Its range is from 
Maine to Kentucky, but it is not 
seen on the sea-board. A Western 
variety reaches as far as Arizona 
and New Mexico. It is often seen 
in the albino state. 
In Southern America, the Por- 
cupines find a representative in 
the CoENDOO, an animal which is 
not only remarkable for its array 
of quills, but also for the prehen- 
sile power of its long tail. 
As might be presumed, from 
the prehensile tail and the pecu- 
liarly armed claws, the Coendoo 
is of arboreal habits, finding its 
food among the lofty branches of 
trees. On the level ground it is 
slow and awkward, but among the 
more congenial boughs it climbs 
with great ease, drawing itself 
from branch to branch by means 
of its hooked claws; but seldom 
using its tail, except as an aid in 
descent. The food of this animal 
consist of leaves, flowers, fruit, 
bark, and the soft woody substance 
of young and tender branches, 
which it slices easily with its chisel-edged incisor teeth. During the summer months the 
Coendoo becomes extremely fat, and its flesh is then in great request, being both delicate in 
flavor and tender in character. The young of this animal are born in the month of September 
or October, and are very few in number. 
The total length of the Coendoo is about three feet six inches, of which the tail occupies 
one foot six inches. Its nose is thick and blunt, like that of the common Porcupine, and the 
face is furnished with very long whisker-hairs of a deep black. The numerous spines which 
cover the body are parti-colored, being black in the centre and white at each extremity. Their 
length is rather more than two inches on the back, an inch and a half on the fore-legs, and not 
quite an inch on the hinder limbs. A number of short quills are also set upon the basal half 
of the tail, the remainder of that organ being furnished with scales, and tapering to its 
extremity. The color of the scales is black. The entire under surface of the tail is covered 
with similar scales, among which are interspersed a number of bright chestnut hairs. The 
abdomen, breast, and inner face of the limbs are clothed with dense, brown, coarse hairs. 
It is a nocturnal animal ; sleeping by day, and feeding by night. 
COENDOO, OR BRAZILIAN PORCUPINE.—Cercolabes urchensilis. 
