COMMON PORCUPINE, 
escape by flight ; but,, on finding that ineffectual, 
he would thrust his head into some corner, making 
a snorting noise, and erecting his spines ; with 
which his pursuers pricked their noses, till they 
quarelled between themselves, and thus gave him 
an opportunity to escape. 
It has been asserted by many credulous travel- 
lers, that the porcupines, when much provoked, 
dart their quills at the object by which they are 
enraged. This opinion, however, has been fully 
refuted by many accurate naturalists, who have 
taken pains to inquire into the matter. The usual 
method of defence adopted by these animals, is to 
recline themselves on one side ; and, on the ap- 
proach of their enemy, to rise up quickly, and 
gore him with the erected prickles of their other 
side. It is also said, that when the porcupine 
meets with serpents, against whom he carries on a 
perpetual war, he closes himself up like a ball, 
concealing his head and feet, and then rolls upon 
and kills them with his bristles, without running 
any risk of being wounded himself. M. Le Var- 
iant says, that, owing to some pernicious quality 
in the quills, one of his Hottentots, who had re- 
ceived a wound in the leg from a porcupine, was 
ill for more than six months. He also informs us, 
that a gentleman at the Cape, in teazing one ot 
these animals, received a wound in the leg, which 
nearly occasioned his loss of the limb ; and not- 
withstanding every possible care, he suffered se- 
verely from it for above four months, during one of 
which he was confined to his bed. 
When the animal is moulting, or casting its 
quills, it sometimes shakes them off with so much 
force, that they will fly to the distance of a few 
yards, and even bend their points against any hard 
substance they happen to strike. It may have 
