8 BRUSH-TAILED PORCUPINE. 
avoid going into it. When they cannot avoid 
their pursuer, they will sidle towards him, in order 
to touch him with their quills, which seem but 
weak weapons of defence ; for on stroking the 
hair, they will come out of the skin sticking 
to the hand. The Indians apply them to various 
purposes ; for piercing their noses and ears to make 
holes for their ear-rings, and other finery ; they 
also trim their deer skin habits with fringes made 
of the quills, or cover with them their bark 
boxes. 
Brush-tailed porcupine. 
This animal, which is described and figured in 
the seventh supplemental volume of the Count de 
Buffon’s History of Quadrupeds, is a native of 
Malacca. It differs, according to that author, 
from the common porcupine in several particulars, 
and especially in the form and length of its tail, 
which is naked, scaly, about a third of the length 
of the body, and terminated by a tuft of long flat 
hairs, or rather small white laminse, resembling 
strips of parchment. The body measures fifteen 
or sixteen inches, and is consequently less than 
that of the European porcupine ; the head also 
Is longer in proportion ; and the snout, which is 
covered with a black skin, is furnished with whisk- 
ers of five or six inches in length ; the eyes are 
small and black ; the ears smooth, round, and 
naked ; there are four toes united by a common 
membrane, on the fore feet, with only a tubercle in 
place of a fifth toe ; the hind feet are united in a 
similar manner, by a membrane somewhat smaller 
than that of the fore feet ; the legs are covered 
with blackish hair ; the flanks and upper part of 
the body are whitish, ayd covered with spines, 
shorter than those of the common porcupine, and 
