VOL. XXXVII. No. 34.) 
WHOLE No. 14S9. J 
NEW YORK CITY, AUG. 10, 1878. 
\ PRICE SIX CENTS. 
1 S2.50 PER YEAR," 
■ 
®|c Itaturalisf, 
[E ntered according- to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by tlie Rural Publishing Co mpany, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
THE PORCUPINE. 
The small family of porcupines is divided by 
naturalists into four genera—the Porcupines 
proper : tho Prebeusiblo Porcupines ; the Au¬ 
tocodes, and the Mexican Porcupines; and of the 
first genus there are several species, named 
either from some peculiarity in their conforma¬ 
tion or from their habitat. 
Of these the most widely diffused is the 
Created Porcupine which is found in Italy, 
Greece and Spain, in Europe, as well as in North¬ 
ern Afrioa and in many parts of Asia, especially 
in Hindoost.au. It is the largest of the Rodents, 
its total length being about three feet Bix inches, 
and from this fact together with its wide dis¬ 
persion, and marked characteristics, it deserves 
to bo considered the legitimate representative 
of the whole genus. The spines or quills of the 
porcupine, the possession of which has won for 
the animal a widespread celebrity through tho 
ages, under ordinary circumstances lie close 
down on its body; and one seeing them in this 
position would hardly suppose that at a mo¬ 
ment’s notice they could be transformed into 
formidable weapons of offoUaeLr defense. Rut 
let anger or fear seize upon the animal, and in 
stantiy a whole forest of bayonets bristles up on 
all sides. These vary considerably in length 
from live to twelve inches, the longest beiug 
flexible and incapable therefore of inflicting 
much injury on an opponent. Beneath these, 
however, is an abundant Bnpply of shorter 
spines which aro tho really dangerous weapons 
in this bristling armory. Among tho myths of 
former days was a generally beheved story that 
the porcupine could hurl its pointed spears at an 
enemy with fatal precision, but although recent 
investigation has shown this report to be fabu¬ 
lous, yet these 
sharp quills are 
weapons not to be 
despised by any 
animal that may 
venture to attack 
their possessor. 
Their hold on 
the skin is very 
slight,so that when 
struck into a foe 
they remain fixed 
in the wound, and, 
unless immediate¬ 
ly removed, work 
sad misery to tho 
sufferer. For the 
barbed quill is so 
constructed that it 
gradually bores its 
way into tho flesh, 
burrowing deeper 
at every move¬ 
ment, and not '.in¬ 
frequently causing 
death even to so 
power fill a beast as 
the leopard or 
tiger. Conscious of 
its power, the por¬ 
cupine is not an 
aggressive animal, 
and seldom if over 
makes an uupro- 
voked attack. If 
irritated or wound¬ 
ed, its bristles are 
spread widely a- 
broad, and with its 
head between its 
lore-paws, at the 
same time ottering 
a hollow grunting 
noise, it rapidly 
backs against its 
assailant. There 
are few animals that have once come in contact 
with the spears of the fretful porcupine, willing to 
face them a second time, and oven the prelimin¬ 
ary rustle of the hollow tail quills, with which 
the creature generally prepares for each attack, is 
quite sufficient to make most animals flee in 
terror. 
The porcupine is shy, solitary and nocturnal 
in its habits, seldom venturing before Bnnset 
from the deep burrow which it excavates with 
many entrances, in some unfrequented spot. 
Its food, which it seeks at night, is entirely of a 
vegetable nature, consisting of herbs, bark, fruit 
and roots. In winter it undergoes a partial 
hibernation. The female brings forth once a 
year three or four young which from their birth 
are covered with quills. It is said not to require 
water, as its thirst is amply satisfied by eating 
succulent fruit and roots. Its incisor teeth are 
so strong as to easily cut through the hardest 
wood as if it were butter; while its nose is so 
tender that the animal is instantly stunned by & 
slight blow ou that organ. Its spines are en¬ 
circled with alternate rings of black and white, 
producing a fine contrast of oolor. The muzzle 
is furnished with long and strong whiskers ; the 
head and neck aro crested with long stiff hairs 
which can be erected or depressed at pleasure. 
Its gait is slow, olnmHy and plantigrade, and as 
it walks, its quills shake and rattle, white tf sud¬ 
denly surprised it coils itseif up in a ball, like a 
hedgehog, and presents an array of threatening 
spikes which renders it safe from the attacks of 
all Rnimals exoept man. Its flesh is not unpala¬ 
table. resembling pork somewhat in flavor; and 
it is doubtless this similarity, together with its 
grouting,to wbiob it owes its name of Porcupine. 
The best known member of the genus, how¬ 
ever, in the northern part of this continent, is 
tho Urson, Chawqnaw, or Canadian Porcupine. 
This is a native of North America, where it is a 
destructive enemy of the trees among which 
alone it is found. It is seldom met with south 
of the 46 parallel; but north of that line it is a 
frequent inhabitant of pine woods whose living 
bark forms its principal food. Its custom is to 
ascend to the top of a tree, commence at the 
highest branches and eat its way downwards. 
Having peeled one tree, it takes to another, and 
then to a third, always selecting those that run 
in a line; so that its path through the woods 
may be readily traced by the row of barked and 
dying trees it leaves behind it. A single Urson 
has been known to destroy a hundred trees in 
one winter, while another is recorded to have 
killed a couple of acres of timber. 
It is tolerably quiet; easily tamed, but sub¬ 
ject to sudden fits of alarm at any strange ob¬ 
ject. When attacked, it draws its legs under its 
body, shoots oijt its quills, lashes around vigor¬ 
ously with its bristling tail, and woe to the foe 
that encounters itB Bweep. 
*-*-*-♦- 
THE RED-WINGED STARLING. 
The Red-winged Starling, commonly known by 
the name of Blackbird, is widely met with from 
Labrador to Mexico. It is both a friend and 
an enemy of the farmer ; but while its friend¬ 
ship is unobtrusive, its enmity is very flagrant. 
Assembling in vast numbers the descending 
swarms blacken the green fields with them pres¬ 
ence and obscure the sun with their multitudi- 
ii‘ vjrigg. With them the immature 
grain of Indian corn is a favorite food. Swoop¬ 
ing on the green stalks, their strong bills readily 
tear away the enveloping husks till little re¬ 
mains but the bare cob and the shriveled skins 
of the grain. From dawn to dusk the open de¬ 
vastation is carried on, and despite the utmost 
display of armed watchfulness by the farmer 
and his juvenile help, a goodly tithe of his crop 
falls a prey to these ubiquitous, black-coated 
pilferers. 
They are the Ishmaehtes of the country-side, 
for every man’s hand is against them. Not an 
adult who owns a gun hat blazes away ruthlessly 
at them, not an urchin able to fling a stone but 
CHESTED PORCUPINE, 
hurls it hopefully at the sable flocks ; while even 
the hawks that throng from afar to make havoo 
among them, cease for a moment to be regarded 
as the foes of the poultry-yard and the butts of 
its owner. After their day’s pillagiug, at night 
they are in the habit of resting among the 
profuse reeds growing in swampy and low-lying 
places. Then, not unfrequently, vast numbers 
of them fall victims, during the hours of dark¬ 
ness, to the wrath of those whose fields they 
have plundered ; to the love of destruction in¬ 
herent in human nature , and to the partiality 
for game not unknown to the human appetite. 
While wrapt in slumber Jthoir roosting-places are 
stealthily invaded, the dry reeds set on fire, and 
as the startled birds dart wildly about, those 
that escape the smoke and the flames, generally 
fall victims to the ready sticks or guns of 
their exoited assailants. A single night often 
witnesses the destruction of thousands of birds 
in this way ; and as their flesh is quite edible, 
though not remarkably savory, mauy of their 
destroyers return to the scene next morning to 
pick up the game. 
Iu this world of ours it is the rule that inju¬ 
ries are punished far oftener than benefits are 
rewarded, and so it is always with these Star¬ 
lings. Constant enmity and frequent death 
follow them for their depredations ; while but 
scanty thanks am ever felt for tho good they do. 
Yet this to by no means small. Daring early 
spring they feed almost exclusively on insects, 
showing a benifleent preference for those that 
in the larval Btate are devouring the young 
leaves of growing crops. As their own existence 
as well as that of their young depends on their 
obtaining a liberal Bupply of these, they hunt 
them with very praiseworthy perseverance. 
Whether the grub be deeply buried in the earth 
eating away the root of some doomed plant; 
whether it be concealed amid tiie thick foliage 
which it to consuming ; or whether it be tun¬ 
neling a passage into the living trunk of a tree, 
the Bed-wiug Starling detects its presence and 
drags it from its 
h i d i ng-pla c e. 
From numerous 
dissections, Wil¬ 
son, the celebrated 
ornithologist, cal¬ 
culated that each 
bird eats at least 
fifty larvae every 
day, aud probably 
very many more, 
and that all the • 
Starlings of this 
kind in the coun¬ 
try destroy sixteen 
thousand million 
noxious insects 
during the season, 
even if they do not 
touch a single in¬ 
flect after tli6ir 
young are able to 
shift for them- 
flelves. In the 
North the birds 
are migratory, but 
in the South some 
of them remain 
the year round. 
There they are ac¬ 
cordingly very nu¬ 
merous in winter, 
and collect in im¬ 
mense flooks o n 
the rice aud corn¬ 
fields, where their 
ravages are even 
more disastrous 
than at the North. 
The males m e a - 
sure nine inches 
In length, are of a 
beautiful glossy 
black color, with 
scarlet shoulders. 
The females are 
