OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 25 
body together with quills bristling, they lie in fancied security. Nor 
are they far wrong so far as other animals than man are concerned. 
The porcupine offers great inducements to wild cat or panther, 
which, nevertheless, never tempt these animals to attack the quill 
pig except in greatest extremity. We have received specimens of 
Lynx rufus with the head filled with the quills, some of them even 
entering the orbit. Even the panther is sometimes destroyed by these 
barbed weapons. 
While there is no truth in the current belief that the porcupine 
discharges its quills voluntarily, yet it appears that by lashing its tail 
it may lodge some of the barbs in the skin of its enemy. Once fast- 
ened, these quills strike inward with great pertinacity and every move- 
ment serves to propel them onward. 
Although preferring succulent vegetation or the green inner bark 
of poplars, etc., the porcupine is, upon occasion, omnivorous. 
The taste of salt is greatly relished and pork skins and barrels in 
which brine has been kept are greedily eaten, even the slight saline 
taste imparted by the hands to oars and ax-helves attracts them, and 
the implements of the lumbermen often suffer from their teeth. The 
Indians regard them in their turn as delicate food and prize it highly, 
as we had occasion to learn in barter for a specimen. 
The porcupine is a good swimmer, voluntarily crossing large 
rivers. Being so fat the body is relatively light and protrudes greatly 
above water. 
It is stated by careful observers that during the very coldest 
weather these animals sometimes pass days and weeks swinging pen- 
dent in the tree tops, literally in a state of suspended animation. 
The one or two young are brought forth in May and are propor- 
tionally larger than in any other rodent. Dr. Merriam mentions one 
which weighed over one and one-fourth pounds prior to birth, being 
inches long. A full grown male measures three feet in total 
length. 
