79 
Porcupine 
The Canada porcupine is a formidable-appearing animal and may be 
embarrassing to a novice, as the quills are rather loose and the barbed 
points are painful weapons. A porcupine killed with a club is apt to have 
the skull broken into fragments or to have many of the dorsal quills 
flattened or knocked off. The best method of killing is by a small rifle 
bullet through the body, or by shotgun through the thin-skinned, unpro- 
tected under parts, which avoids riddling and tearing the quills. The 
selection of a shot is a simple matter, as the porcupine will generally climb 
a few yards up a tree and stay there. The porcupine has no quills on the 
under part of the body and throat and the skin may be rapidly removed 
without injury from a single quill. 
Make a cut along the median line from the throat to the tip of tail, 
and cut the skin from the body with long, sweeping strokes, turning the 
edges of the skin outwards and rolling the skin back with the quills inside. 
As the roots of the quills are deeply embedded in the skin, be careful not 
to cut off their bases. The tail is very thick and muscular, with the skin 
grown tightly to the flesh, so it must literally be carved out of the skin, 
avoiding if possible cutting any gashes in the tail skin, particularly on the 
dorsal side. As the skin is usually fat, it needs considerable subsequent 
cleaning with knife, shears, and scraper. It is generally best to salt a 
porcupine’s skin in the field, and defer cleaning until the skin reaches the 
laboratory, and has hardened a bit. Although the porcupine is rather 
large it is usually easier to handle in the museum as a made up “study 
skin.” In making up the skin, stuff it rather smaller than natural size 
and flatten the body considerably, not more than 3 or 4 inches 
deep, otherwise the specimen will take up too much case room and be a 
problem generally. A porcupine skin can be handled with less danger from 
quills if a narrow piece of wood is used to stiffen the body, as in the 
“California style” of rabbit skin (page 80), letting the stick project far 
enough behind the body for the legs to be tied to the stick. The projecting 
stick may be used as a handle in lifting the specimen. 
Hares and Rabbits 
Although these animals are rather large and bulky, they are best 
made up as study skins. The skin is thin and tender and brittle when 
dry, so that when flat or cased the heavy legs and feet are apt to be torn 
off. The skin is removed in the manner usual for small mammals. 
As the head is angular and irregular in shape, with broad cheeks, 
narrow nose, and depressed muzzle, care should be taken to make the head 
filling as near the natural size and shape as possible. Crumple up a hard 
wad of paper for a core and wind cotton, tow, or oakum around it as 
tightly as possible, to make a firm artificial head. Leave the leg bones 
attached to the feet and wrap them loosely with cotton or tow. If the 
leg bone is broken make a rough splice by thrusting a bit of stick or wire 
into each of the broken ends. Cut two pieces of fairly stiff wire (iron or 
brass, annealed, No. 16 or 17), sharpen one end of each, and thrust them 
into the heels from the outside, along the hind leg bones and into the fore 
leg on each side, and out at the wrist. Arrange the skin in proper length 
and tie the leg bones fast to the wires, which run parallel to each other 
