286 CANADA PORCUPINE. 



animal was several years since (before my shooting days) very abundant 

 in this region, the Connecticut Western Reserve, and no more than ten 

 years ago one person killed seven or eight in the course of an afternoon's 

 hunt for squirrels, within three or four miles of this city, while no-w 

 probably one could not be found in a month. They are rapidly becom- 

 ing extinct : the chief reason is probably the extreme hatred all hunters 

 bear them on account of the injuries their quills inflict on their dogs. 

 They do not hibernate neither do I think they are particularly confined 

 to their hollow trees during the coldest days in winter. Their move- 

 ments from tree to tree in search of food (browse and bark) are rather 

 slow and awkward, their track in the snow very much resembles that of 

 a child (with the aid of imagination.) 



" They most delight in browsing and barking young and thrifty Elms, 

 and are generally plenty in Elm, or Bass-wood Swail." 



GEOGEAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



This species, according to Richardson, has been met with as far north 

 as the Mackenzie river, in latitude 67°. It is found across the continent 

 from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, and is tolerably abundant in the 

 woody portions of the western part of Missouri. To us this has been 

 rather a rare species in the Atlantic districts ; we having seldom met 

 ■with it in the Northern and Eastern States. It is found, however, in the 

 northern and ■western parts of New York, and is said to be increasing 

 in some of the western counties of that State. Dr. Leonard, of Lansing- 

 burg, recently obtained specimens from the mountains of Vermont. It 

 exists sparingly in the mountains of the northern portion of Pennsj'lvania, 

 and in a few localities in Ohio ; ^ve obtained it on the Upper Missouri. 

 Lewis and Clarke have not enumerated it as one of the species inhabit- 

 ing the ■west of the Rocky Mountains. 



It does not exist in the southern parts of New York or Pennsylvania. 

 Dekay (Nat. Hist, of New York, p. 79) states, that it is found in the 

 northern parts of Virginia and Kentucky. We however sought for it 

 without success in the mountains of Virginia, and could never hear of 

 its existence in Kentucky. 



