WESTERN PORCUPINE, ERETHRIZON EPIXANTHUS. 



ALLAN BROOKS. 



Comparatively few people are acquainted 

 with the porcupines of North America, or 

 know such a curious and exotic looking 

 animal exists in the far Northern woods. 



When met with in their native haunts, 

 the most casual observer will examine them 

 with interest. Their manners and actions 

 are as different from any other American 

 animal as is their appearance. 



They are almost fearless, more so even 

 than a skunk, which has a great reputation 

 in this respect. 



While the porcupine is not usually sought 

 as an article of food, yet he is good to eat. 

 Being entirely a vegetable feeder his flesh is 

 sweet and wholesome. His stupidity makes 

 him an easy prey to any one who may find 

 him on the ground, even though unarmed. 

 Thus the " armored cruiser " has saved the 

 life of many a man who has been lost in the 

 woods or mountains, without a gun, and 

 who has outlived his rations. For this rea- 

 son I understand the porcupine is protected 

 at all times by the laws of some of the States. 



When you meet a porcupine he will walk 

 right up to you; at all events he won't run 

 away. If he finds you aggressive, he puts 

 himself on the defensive by turning his well 

 protected back and tail toward you. Woe 

 betide the dog that runs in and grabs him 

 then! Still there are dogs so pugnacious 

 they attack every porcupine they find, yea r * 

 after year. I once knew a bull dog that killed 

 dozens of them. Of course he always got his 

 face full of quills, and after the fight would 

 present himself at his master's house to have 

 them pulled out. He was a big, powerful 

 brute and it always took 2 men to hold him 

 while a third played dentist. Some of the 

 quills would break off, leaving the barbed 

 point imbedded in the flesh. These would 

 invariably work through the dog's head and 

 come out on the opposite side. Frequently 

 his head would, for a week or 2, be swelled 

 to twice its normal size. Running sores 

 would result from the action of the quills, 

 but still the plucky dog would go after the 

 porcupines, even while his head was swelled 

 till it looked like a Yankee pumpkin. 



Pounding the porcupine on the tack with 

 a club only makes him stand his ground 

 more firmly. It is almost impossible to 

 strike his head, as he whirls about with 

 wonderful rapidity if one tries to edge 

 around to get at it. No compass needle 

 points more certainly to the pole than his 

 tail toward an enemy, no matter how rap- 

 idly that enemy may revolve around him. 



Now the humane reader will ask, " Why 

 murder so interesting an animal?" I felt 

 this way once, but now I always kill them 



if there is a club or rock handy, or if I have 

 a weapon. I have once or twice tried to 

 kick their heads into their shoulders, but 

 have found that many reasons prevented my 

 doing this, and have been compelled to leave 

 the porcupine uninjured. 



These are the sins I lay against the porcu- 

 pine and for which I kill him. First, when 

 lying in an open camp he is just as likely 

 as not to walk over you, and feeling a move- 

 ment beneath him to dash his terrible tail 

 into your face. Second, there is nothing 

 he will not eat or try his teeth on, from 

 your pet rifle stock, to your boots. 



To leave the soap out over night, in a 

 porcupine country, means you will have to 

 use sand to scrub with the rest of the trip. 

 The porcupine will invariably get into any 

 trap set for more valuable animals, and after 



M 

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Jlip 



AMATEUR PHOTO BY THOS. B. MAGEE. 



LOOKING FOR BUGS. 



eating up the bait will sit comfortably down 

 and await events, without trying to pull out. 



His worst crime is the fearful destruction 

 he works among trees. He puts in the 

 whole winter at this, his summer diet being 

 grass, herbage, and berries. 



White and black pines, Pinus flexilis and 

 Murray ana, are his favorite food trees in 

 winter, and in the lower districts the " bull " 

 pine, P. ponderosa. I have seen many places 

 where all the white pines were destroyed, 

 leaving the black pines almost untouched 

 and the firs and balsams entirely so. The 

 old fallacy about porcupines throwing their 

 quills with their tails has long since been ex- 

 ploded. 



■ Their method of attack is to climb to the 

 topmost branches and work down, strip- 

 ping the outer bark and eating the soft, 

 juicy, inner bark. They generally work on 

 small or medium sized trees. • 



Unlike other rodents they do not hop, 

 but progress by moving one foot at a time 



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