166 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
produced the weird-like sound that had caused me so much 
alarm, my companion assuring me that at the period the 
sexes came together, if rivals are in the way, the call or 
note of defiance is quite dissimilar from their general voice. 
Early in spring the young are born. At first they are 
very small. In six weeks they are able to accompany their 
mother, who cares for them with the greatest solicitude 
and attention, hauling the logs on one side for the cubs to 
alti 
CANADIAN PORCUPINE, 
obtain the coveted grubs and larve underneath, pulling 
down the uppermost branches that: produce fruit ; and if by 
accident the young should be placed in a position of danger, 
her life is always willingly sacrificed in their defense. 
Walking across a portage in Maine, close to the borders 
of New Brunswick, in front of the party of which I was a 
member, my gun loaded, in the hope of killing a grouse or 
two, I perceived a small animal, about the size of a King 
Charles spaniel, running along the track a hundred or more 
