COMMON PORCUPINE. 5 



but that they only fall off when he shakes him- 

 self. The lines of Claudian are these : 



Ecce, brevis propriis munitur bestia telis, 

 Externam. nec quaerit opem, fert omnia ^ecum, 

 Se pharetra, sese jaculo, sese utitur arcu ! 



Arm'd at all points in Nature's guardian mail, 

 vSee the stout porcupine his foes assail ; 

 And, urg'd to tight, the ready weapons throw. 

 Himself at once the quiver, dart, and bow ! 



Some authors have gone so far as to assert that 

 the Porcupine can dart his quills with such force 

 as to penetrate a plank of considerable thickness. 

 It is agreed on all hands, however^ that the ani- 

 mal, conscious of the power of his armour, ge- 

 nerally pushes against his adversary when as- 

 saulted, -and can thus sometimes wound pretty 

 smartly with his spines, and this is said to be par- 

 ticularly the case with a small species found in 

 North America, and known by the name of the 

 Urson, or Canada Porcupine. 



Dr. Patrick Brown, in his Natural History of 

 Jamaica, speaking of the common Porcupine, 

 which, he says, is sometimes brought into that 

 island from the coast of Guinea in the African 

 ships, observes, that the force and mechanism 

 with which this animal darts its long thorns at its 

 enemy, when it is enraged, is really admirable : 

 nor are the infinitely small setae these are beset 

 with less remarkable, by which they stick in the 

 flesh with more obstinacy than a simple body ,of 

 the same form would do. These little setae are 



