PORCUPINE. 
" are likewise the quills which the Porcupines 
" dart against the Hunters j by shaking their 
skin, as E)ogs do when they come out of 
fi the water. Ciaudian in the same manner 
" remarks, that the Porcupine is, himself, the 
** bow, the quiver, and the arms, which he 
*t employs against the hunters*" 
On this passage, BufToh judiciously notes, 
that " Fable is the province of the Poet ; and, 
therefore, Ciaudian merits no reproach : but 
the Anatomists of the Academy should not 
have adopted this fable, which they seem to 
have done for no other purpose than that of 
quoting Ciaudian; for, from- their own ac- 
count, it appears' that the Porcupine does not 
dart it's quills to a distance, but that they only 
fall off when it shakes itself. Wormius, 
Wotton, Aldrovandus, and several other re- 
spectable writers, have adopted this error. 
Bosnian, in his Voyage to Guinea, asserts 
that, '* when the Porcupine is enraged, it 
darts it's quills, which are Sometimes two spans 
in length, with such rapidity and force, against 
men and other animals, that they will pies ce a 
plank of wood." 
According 
