THE POECDPINE ANT-EATKE. 53 



can hardly be captured, gathering its back into an arched form, 

 collecting the legs under the body, scratching away with the 

 feet, and sinking like a stone in a cup of treacle. 



These paws are not only potent in digging, but in clinging to 

 any object, and their hold is so wonderfully firm that they 

 cannot be disengaged even from smooth boards without very 

 great trouble. To grasp the creature is impossible, because the 

 sharp points of its projecting spines are capable of inflicting 

 painful wounds, and its feet are so completely hidden under the 

 body that they cannot be separately detached. Dr. Bennett 

 gives a very graphic account of its clinging powers: — "When 

 one of these animals was given to me, and placed in the box of 

 the gig to bring home, on arriving there I could not by any 

 effort remove it, from its adhering to the boards like a limpet to 

 the rocks (the head and snout being drawn in). Only a formid- 

 able array of prickles was -visible, so sharp that on the least 

 touch they left a very painful feeling on the hands. So firmly 

 was the animal fixed, that it was impossible to stir it from that 

 position. At last, the method of removing limpets and chitons 

 from the rocks was resorted to, and a spade being inserted gra- 

 dually at one extremity of the animal, it was scraped from its 

 position with some difficulty, and even then it was some length 

 of time before we succeeded in grasping the hind legs, and con- 

 veying the troublesome creature to the place of confinement 

 allotted to it." 



Grasping it by the hind leg is the only method of conveying 

 this animal with safety, for it kicks so hard with its powerful and 

 armed feet, that the hands and clothes will suffer severely from 

 the strokes ; while the violent plunges of the body are sure to bring 

 the pointed prickles into unpleasant contact with the fingers. 

 In spite of the difficulty of procuring living specimens, and the 

 interest which attaches itself to an animal of whose habits so 

 little is known. Dr. Bennett was not very sorry when his speci- 

 men — which we cannot call a tame one — ^was one day found 

 dead ; for its burrowing propensities were so destructive, and 

 its prickles so annoying, that it made itself into a positive 

 nuisance. 



If attacked when on ground into which it cannot burrow 

 rapidly, the Porcupine Ant-eater immediately curls itself into a 

 ball, hedgehog-wise, and sets its foes at defiance. The large 



