196 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. VII 
porcupine, have, short, close, many-colored spines, 
and a long, tapering, distinctly prehensile tail, 
that forms a fifth hand equal to that of the 
monkey or opossum. The soles of their feet, 
too, are provided with a peculiar fleshy pad on 
the inner side, ‘“‘ between which and the toes 
boughs and other objects can be firmly grasped.” 
Two of them—the couiy and the coendou — are 
familiar to the people of Guiana, Brazil, and 
Bolivia; and, in the former, the spines — which 
may be erected—are ordinarily covered by long 
gray hairs, which, we are told, effectually conceal 
the animal from the notice of predatory birds, 
as it lies asleep during the day, heaped up in an 
indistinguishable mass in the fork of some moss- 
draped tree. Of the coendou, in the island of 
Trinidad, a curious fact is recorded by Mr. Frank 
M. Chapman, Bulletin Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. V, 
p. 227, as follows: 
\ “The presence of this arboreal species [ Sye- 
theres prehensilis|is made known by the nauseat- 
ing odor it gives forth. This is especially noticeable 
in the early morning when the air is humid and 
before the daily trade-winds begin to blow. In 
walking through the forests at this time, it was not 
unusual to encounter odoriferous strata of air pro- 
ceeding from individuals of this species. So dense, 
however, was the parasitic vegetation on the trees 
in which they conceal themselves, that they were 
practically invisible from below. 
