GATHERED BY THE WAY 
Let any one who knows the porcupine try to fancy 
it performing a feat like this! 
Another romancer makes his porcupine roll him- 
self into a ball when attacked by a panther, and then 
on a nudge from his enemy roll down a snowy incline 
into the water. I believe the little European hedge- 
hog can roll itself up into something like a ball, but 
our porcupine does not. I have tried all sorts of 
tricks with him, and made all sorts of assaults upon 
him, at different times, and I have never yet seen 
him assume the globular form. It would not be the 
best form for him to assume, because it would partly 
expose his vulnerable under side. The one thing the 
porcupine seems bent upon doing at all times is to 
keep right side up with care. His attitude of defense 
is crouching close to the ground, head drawn in and 
pressed down, the circular shield of large quills upon 
his back opened and extended as far as possible, and 
the tail stretched back rigid and held close upon the 
ground. “Now come on,” he says, “if you want to.” 
The tail is his weapon of active defense; with it he 
strikes upward like lightning, and drives the quills 
into whatever they touch. In his chapter called “In 
Panoply of Spears,” Mr. Roberts paints the porcu- 
pine without taking any liberties with the creature’s 
known habits. He portrays one characteristic of 
the porcupine very felicitously: “As the porcupine 
made his resolute way through the woods, the man- 
ner of his going differed from that of all the other 
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