LECTURE III. 95 



contracting and shaking the general skin of the 

 body, may sometimes, by this motion, cast off' a 

 few of its looser quills to some distance, and thus 

 ,even slightly wound any animal that may happei; 

 to stand in its way 3 and this may have given rise 

 to the popular idea of its darting them at pleasure 

 against its enemies. 



The poet Claudian, it is well known, has availed 

 himself of this notion, and has represented the 

 Porcupine in the usual stile of false wit so re- 

 markable among the minor poets. 



" Ecce, brevis propriis munitur bestia telis, 

 Externam nee quxrit opera, fert omnia secum, 

 Se phareti-a, sese jaculo, sese utitur arcu !" 



*' Arm'd at all points in Nature's guardian mail^ 

 See the stout Porcupine his foes assail 5 

 And, urged to fight, the ready weapons thr0W;» 

 Himself at once the quiver, dart, and bow." 



There are several different species of Por- 

 cupine, one of the most remarkable of which is 

 called the Canada Porcupine. It is of the size of a* 

 small or half-grown Beaver, and has, at first sight, 

 so little of the appearance of a Porcupine, that 

 it would hardly be supposed by any common:' 



