GATHERED BY THE WAY 



Let any one who knows the porcupine try to fancy 

 it performing a feat like this ! 



Another romancer makes his porcupine roll him- 

 self into a ball when attacked by a panther, and then 

 on a nudge from his enemy roll down a snowy incline 

 into the water. I believe the little European hedge- 

 hog can roll itself up into something like a ball, but 

 our porcupine does not. I have tried all sorts of 

 tricks with him, and made all sorts of assaults upon 

 him, at different times, and I have never yet seen 

 him assume the globular form. It would not be the 

 best form for him to assume, because it would partly 

 expose his vulnerable under side. The one thing the 

 porcupine seems bent upon doing at all times is to 

 keep right side up with care. His attitude of defense 

 is crouching close to the ground, head drawn in and 

 pressed down, the circular shield of large quills upon 

 his back opened and extended as far as possible, and 

 the tail stretched back rigid and held close upon the 

 ground. " Now come on," he says, " if you want to." 

 The tail is his weapon of active defense; with it he 

 strikes upward like lightning, and drives the quills 

 into whatever they touch. In his chapter called " In 

 Panoply of Spears," Mr. Roberts paints the porcu- 

 pine without taking any liberties with the creature's 

 known habits. He portrays one characteristic of 

 the porcupine very felicitously: ''As the porcupine 

 made his resolute way through the woods, the man- 

 ner of his going differed from that of all the other 

 245 



