VII A WOODLAND CODGER IQ! 
time to come that it rarely notices the escape of its 
would-be victim. Every movement of the muscles 
causes them to penetrate deeper; and there seems 
no limit to their inflammatory and often fatal trav- 
els. Dr. Merriam says that he has found them 
everywhere in animals that he has dissected, once 
discovering a whole quill between the two leg 
bones of the hind limb of a fisher. Nevertheless, 
the porcupine is occasionally attacked and killed 
by panthers, wild-cats, wolves, martens, eagles, and 
owls, but this usually happens, probably, under the 
stress of extreme hunger and in winter, as in the 
case related a moment ago. Few dogs seem to 
have sense enough to let him alone; and it is be- 
cause so many of these are injured that hunters 
regard the porcupine as vermin, and kill it at every 
opportunity. 
But the animal is not content merely to cur] up 
and let an enemy come to grief upon his defences, 
for he possesses in his thick, triangular, muscular 
tail, along the sides of which grow the stiffest and 
strongest of quills, a powerful weapon for active 
warfare. I was once, with a friend, climbing one 
of the Catskill peaks, when we ran across a porcu- 
pine and quickly cornered it in a nook of rocks. 
Ducking its head between its fore feet, swelling up 
and turning its back upon us, it instantly bristled 
all over until it looked like a big ripe chestnut 
burr. Its tail seemed to offer a sort of handle, 
however, and before I could remonstrate, my 
