Deer s Horns Gnawed by Porcupines. 97 



singular methods adopted by this little creature to escape 

 observation, one in particular is the habit of forming itself 

 into a loose ball, which, unless by the practised eye of the 

 trapper, cannot be distinguished from a stone or clod of earth 

 or stump. But this plan of sitting motionless on the approach 

 of danger is also common to squirrels and many birds, also to 

 certain partridges and pheasants, and the porcupine, which, 

 however, is well protected. There is a vulgar opinion, both 

 among settlers and Indians, that the latter has the faculty of 

 shooting its spines like so many arrows, from the circumstance, 

 unknown to them, that when the animal is bearded it defends 

 itself by means of its tail, which is whisked across the dog's 

 face with great dexterity and force, leaving the spines sticking ; 

 or as often happens, the adversary, unconscious of danger, 

 rushes madly on the porcupine ; indeed dogs are sometimes 

 destroyed in this way. The porcupine delights in deserted 

 lumber camps, where it gnaws old sugar barrels. It is also 

 partial to the bark of the maple on the same account ; indeed 

 the bark of trees is its favourite food, and many saplings are 

 entirely destroyed by the creature. Although generally dis- 

 tributed over the region, it is most plentiful in rocky situations, 

 and lives in societies, its presence being usually indicated by 

 heaps of spoor on the rock ledges.* The cast and weathered 

 antlers of deer being usually found with the tips gnawed, are 

 supposed to have been mutilated by their owners ; but after 

 examining several specimens of moose horns so bitten, I 

 could clearly define traces of the incisors of porcupines, 

 who, doubtless, eat them from choice, considering the number 

 usually found in this condition. 



Of the smaller insectivora and rodents, both the little 



* The spoor of the porcupine {i.e., the pellets) is very much larger than 

 might be supposed from the size of the creature, consequently the inex- 

 perienced hunter is apt to mistake its droppings for those of deer, as 

 occurred to me on a certain occasion, when I spent an hour in carefully 

 tracking a porcupine, under the belief that I was on the trail of a 

 Virginian deer. 



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