A VULGAR ERROR. 
47 
are its most formidable enemies. When excited, the 
porcupine stamps upon the ground, and before it 
stiffens its quills rattles them with great violence, 
shakes its tail, and then rolls itself up into a ball, like 
the common hedgehog. 
The common notion that this animal has the power 
of projecting its darts, like so many arrows, against 
an advancing foe, is a vulgar error. When violently 
assaulted, some of these defensive weapons, which 
from age or use had become completely dislocated or 
disunited from the attaching ligament, occasionally 
fall from the skin ; but it was ascertained by Buffon, 
after repeated experiments, that the creature possessed 
not the power of elancing its quills, which are a per- 
manent defence, and in general a most efficient one. 
There are five species of this animal, the hystrix 
cristata, or crested porcupine ; the dorsata, the ma- 
croura, the mexicana, and the prehensilis. The first is 
the animal just described. The dorsata is an in- 
habitant of North America as high as Hudson’s Bay. 
It is about the size of the crested species, but its 
prickles are very short, like those of the hedgehog, 
only covering the back, and are almost hidden by the 
long hair which grows thickly betwixt them. The 
Indians stick them through their ears and the carti- 
lages of the nose, in order to make holes for the large 
rings and other ornaments with which they adorn, 
but more frequently distort, those features. They 
wear them besides for various ornamental purposes, 
making them into very elegant fringes, with which 
they trim the edges of their deer-skin mantles. These 
animals feed chiefly on fruits, and are considered by 
