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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



after their first encounter with this strange 

 beast. That such an attack is a dangerous 

 venture, even by the craftiest and most power- 

 ful of its enemies, is well demonstrated by 

 occasional fatalities among large carnivores 

 which result from the great mass of spines im- 

 bedded in their heads and bodies. 



The North American porcupine is a north- 

 ern animal belonging mainly to coniferous for- 

 ests, and ranges from sea level to timberline. 

 It originally occupied nearly all the forested 

 parts of the continent south to West Virginia, 

 southern Illinois, the Davis Mountains of west- 

 ern Texas, and the southern end of the Sierra 

 Nevada in California, but was absent from the 

 Southeastern States and the lower Mississippi 

 Valley. 



While characteristically a woodland animal, 

 at times it wanders from forest shelters and 

 has been found prowling about above timber- 

 line on high mountains, and among alder thick- 

 ets beyond the limit of trees in the far North. 

 They are usually silent, but at times utter a 

 curious squealing cry, and in addition have a 

 variety of snuffing, growling, and chattering 

 noises. 



In the forests of tropical America, from 

 Mexico to Brazil, other and shorter-quilled 

 porcupines occur, characterized by smaller size 

 and slenderer bodies with a long tail, the ter- 

 minal half of which is naked and prehensile 

 like that of an opossum. These animals in- 

 habit forests where no conifers grow, and are 

 much more arboreal in habits than their north- 

 ern relatives. Still other and even more strik- 

 ingly different porcupines - occur in Europe, 

 Asia, and Africa, some of the African animals 

 having heavy spines more than twelve inches 

 long. 



All porcupines are true rodents, and the 

 name hedgehog is erroneously used when ap- 

 plied to any of them. Hedgehogs are small Old 

 World insect-eating mammals, which have their 

 backs covered with porcupine-like spines, but 

 are in no way related to the porcupines. 



The American porcupines are mainly noc- 

 turnal, although they sometimes wander about 

 by day. While largely arboreal in habits, they 

 pass much of their time on the ground and 

 commonly have their dens in caves at the bases 

 of cliffs, under the shelter of large rocks, logs, 

 piles of brush, or in hollows at the bases of 

 trees. They are sluggish, stupid animals, with 

 poor sight, and are unable to move rapidly, 

 either in a tree or on the ground. 



Although on the ground they are extremely 

 deliberate, in the treetops they are even more 

 sluggish and can be compared only with the 

 sloth. In consequence they are practically 

 helpless in the presence of an enemy except 

 for the defense afforded by their spiny armor. 

 That in most cases this is effective is evidenced 

 by their continued presence throughout a large 

 part of their original range where forests still 

 exist. 



Porcupines are solitary animals, totally de- 

 void of any qualities of good fellowship with 

 their kind, but the attraction of woodland 

 camps often brings a number together. They 



are exceedingly fond of salt and persistently 

 return to camps to gnaw logs, boards, or any 

 other object having a salty flavor. 



They appear to be practically omnivorous so 

 far as vegetable matter is concerned and feed 

 upon the bark and twigs of spruces, hemlocks, 

 several species of pines, cottonwoods, alders, 

 and other trees and bushes. In orchards and 

 gardens near their haunts they eat apples, tur- 

 nips, and oilier fruits and vegetables and visit 

 the shores of ponds for waterlily pads and 

 other aquatic plants growing within reach. 



Ordinarily they eat patches of bark from the 

 tree trunks, but sometimes girdle the tree or at 

 times denude the entire trunk. They often re- 

 main for weeks in the top of a single tree, even 

 in the severest winter weather. I had a practi- 

 cal illustration of this on one occasion when 

 stormbound in a fur trader's cabin at the head 

 of Norton Bay, on the north coast of Bering 

 Sea, where a belt of spruces reached down 

 from the interior. We were short of meat, and 

 when one of the Eskimos reported that some 

 time before he had seen a porcupine in a spruce 

 tree he was sent to look for it. A few hours 

 later he returned bringing the game, having 

 found it in the very same tree where he had 

 seen it many days before, although we had just 

 experienced a period of severe weather, with 

 temperatures well under 40 degrees Fahrenheit 

 below zero. It was on this occasion that I first 

 learned the palatable qualities of porcupine 

 flesh. 



Little is known definitely concerning the 

 family life of these animals. The young, from 

 one to four in number, are amazingly large at 

 birth and appear fully armed with spines. 

 Even before they are "half grown they adopt 

 the solitary habit of the adults and wander 

 forth to care for themselves. 



Porcupines have an intimate connection with 

 the romantic side of early Indian life in eastern 

 America. Their white quills were colored in 

 bright hues by vegetable dyes known to the 

 Indians and served to make beautiful embroid- 

 ery on belts, moccasins, and other articles of 

 aboriginal clothing until primitive art gave way 

 to the more tawdry effects of trade goods. 



THE JUMPING MOUSE (Zapus hudsonius 



and its relatives) 



{For illustration, see page 412) 



In several ways the jumping mouse is unique 

 imong American mammals. Its strongest char- 

 acteristics are a dull, rusty yellowish color, a 

 slender body about three inches long, a remark- 

 ably slender tail about five inches in length, and 

 long hind legs and feet, which are specially 

 developed for jumping, like those of a little 

 kangaroo. In addition it is provided with 

 cheek pouches, one on each side of the mouth, 

 in which it gathers food to be carried to its 

 hidden stores. 



The long tail serves as a balance during its 

 extraordinary leaps, some of which in a single 

 bound cover a distance of about ten feet. If 

 by accident one of these animals loses its tail, 



