FOREST AND STREAM 
209 
The Pest of the New England Forests 
Upon returning home to-day, after camping- 
in the Green Mountains for the past fortnight, 
where my nights were mostly consumed in a con¬ 
tinuous struggle with the porcupine pest, I casu¬ 
ally picked up a book by a well-known author 
on mammalogy and my eye fell upon this state¬ 
ment therein: The Canada porcupine “passes 
its time lazily browsing in the hemlocks, or at 
night wandering about near its lair, picking up 
a variety of vegetable fare, and rejoicing in an 
occasional find of bones or cast antlers or the 
saline scraps of a lumber camp or a hunter’s 
bivouac, which it enters with the fearlessness of 
innocence, and rummages without doing any great 
harm.” When I read this passage I involuntarily 
exclaimed to myself “Wouldn’t that jar you?” 
There are certainly two points about the above 
which wili provoke a broad smile from our New 
England campers and woodsmen; namely, first, 
in regard to the porcupine eating cast off deer 
antlers, and, second, about his rummaging about 
a camp “without doing any great harm.” Evi¬ 
dently the author of these remarks is unfamiliar 
with his subject in a an intimate way or he 
would not have been guilty of making such a 
grossly misleading statement, for nothing could 
possibly be farther from the truth respecting this 
animal as we find him here in Vermont. 
In treating the subject, ‘however, I shall at 
once discard the book-name of “Canada porcu¬ 
pine” and call this quilly pest just what we call 
him here in Vermont—the hedgehog. While we 
are all aware that the porcupine possesses little 
resemblance to the true hedgehog of Europe, yet 
he is so designated officially in the statute book 
of this and other New England states, and if we 
attempted to discuss him under the name of 
porcupine many of our woodsmen would be un- 
. able to understand what animal was meant. But 
as just plain “hedgehog” they all know him only 
too well. Some of my camping companions, 
whose camps have been plundered and destroyed 
by this bold woodland marauder, have given him 
the name of “Road-agent,” and, under the cir¬ 
cumstances, I think it is a very appropriate one. 
In regard to the hedgehog eating the cast off 
antlers of a deer, that surely makes the writer 
smile out loud. It is easily perceived how a 
hedgehog, or any other animal with powerful 
jaws, might chew off the tips of a deer’s antlers, 
but to assert that any animal could rejoice in 
making a meal of them is the most ridiculous 
statement I have ever read. It has been my ex¬ 
perience to 'have examined under the microscope 
what was supposed to have been the shed antlers 
of moose, caribou, elk and deer. Of the white- 
tail deer, I have gathered hundreds of their horns 
at various seasons of the year. I have witnessed 
a buck in the very act of shedding his brow 
adornments and then picked them up immediately 
after the operation and examined them critically. 
I have found these antlers early in the spring, 
late in the fall, and on two occasions have dug 
them out of the ground where they had been 
buried for years- One thing I observed about 
them all was that they were as hard as flint, and 
By Henry Chase. 
no living animal could possibly eat and digest 
them. They are somewhat like well-seasoned dry 
bones, without the marrow nourishment contained 
in the latter, and very much harder and not so 
brittle. The fiber is not so porous as in ordinary 
bones, and they appear to withstand years of 
weathering when sheltered from moisture. Water, 
of course, will produce deterioration and in time 
they will and do rot and decay the same as bones, 
except that the process is slower. 
What a lot of misinformation is given the pub¬ 
lic from time to time regarding the deer shed¬ 
ding its horns! I have often heard it asserted 
that the cast off antlers are soft and are soon 
devoured by foxes, hedgehogs and other woods 
animals. Also, many people wonder why both 
horns are scarcely ever found together in one 
place. 
The truth is, as stated above, these horns are 
as hard as iron, except at the burr, below which 
we will usually find blood upon the deer’s head 
where the antler has protruded. In this latitude 
the buck sheds his antlers about February i to 
February 15. Snow is commonly on the ground 
at that time and covers them up completely. 
There they lay, and are again covered by leaves 
in summer and fall, and go through the normal 
process of decay which requires a long time, ex¬ 
cept where they are much exposed to water and 
then the process is accelerated. In divesting him¬ 
self of these appendages the buck generally 
chooses a log or hard stump and butts against it. 
Sometimes one antler will come off one day and 
the other later. Hence, these horns are usually 
found some distance apart. The buck is ex¬ 
tremely careful about the operation of removing 
his antlers. He does not seem to strike the 
stump at all forcibly. He pushes against it very 
gently at first as though he dreaded the opera¬ 
tion. Whether it is painful to him or not I am 
unable to say, but appearances indicate that it 
is, or else it is necessary to go about it in this 
way to accomplish the operation successfully. 
Nevertheless, he keeps right at it at short inter¬ 
vals until both horns are removed. Occasionally 
he will get one antler off and carry the other for 
sometime and so the two are shed miles from 
each other. On one occasion I had the good 
fortune to witness a big buck shed both of his 
horns in about 15 minutes time and within 50 feet 
of each other. This is rather unusual. 
At any rate there is no mystery about the shed¬ 
ding operation or as to what becomes of the ant¬ 
lers after being cast off. One season there was 
a large herd of deer yarded in a small area in 
this county. The place was quite accessible to 
visitors and over 30 dropped-antlers were picked 
up as souvenirs. If you know of a similar place 
in mid-winter you will experience little difficulty 
in finding their cast off horns. 
Now, as to Mr. Canada Porcupine, commonly 
called hedgehog. Of all the woods nuisances 
and camp pests he surely takes first prize in this 
section of the country—especially since so many 
permanent hunters’ and lumbermen’s camps have 
been erected in the forests. At each session of 
our legislature an army of campers, lumbermen 
and forest owners always comes forward and de¬ 
mands that a bounty be placed upon the head of 
the hedgehog. This causes considerable merri¬ 
ment among the city members, buit the petitioners 
are so numerous and persistent they usually suc¬ 
ceed. These bounties keep the hedgehogs in check 
as they are then slaughtered by the thousands. 
Were it not for this legislation I am convinced 
that our Green Mountains would soon become 
an unbearable place in which to camp. 
The damage these pests inflict upon the most 
valuable timber and permanent camps is simply 
incalculable. They possess a nose which can scent 
your camp from afar. The common use of salt- 
pork, bacon, ham, corned-beef and plain salt 
around 'camps is the strong attraction for Mr. 
Hedgehog. For these he will -travel miles to find 
your camp. Once he has found it, he immediately 
takes up his abode there and nev.er voluntarily de¬ 
parts until your buildings, floors, furniture and 
camping utensils appear as though they had been 
struck by a cyclone. Although the hedgehog is 
an extremely stupid animal, still he has sufficient 
patience and persistence to accomplish all the de¬ 
struction he set out upon. His usual method is 
to get under the cabin and gnaw through the 
floor. When once inside it only requires a short 
time for him to chew up the floor, the furniture 
and sleeping bunks, besides filling the place with 
quills and dung, and making it -a total wreck and 
uninhabitable. As I said it is the salt that at¬ 
tracts him, but he can find saline flavor every¬ 
where, even where your perspiring body has laid 
in a bunk. He examines every nook and crevice 
in your camp and if he does not find something to 
gnaw upon he will leave a few quills and other 
filth to remind you that he has overlooked noth¬ 
ing. If you bank your camp with stones so he 
cannot dig under it Mr. Hedgehog will attack the 
doors and windows. Not succeeding there he will 
keep incessantly at that cabin until he finds a 
weak spot in the structure and then in he goes. 
As long as the saline scent pervades the place 
Mr. Hedgehog will continue to attack it and he 
will never be satisfied until he has wrecked it 
completely. But that is not his only annoyance 
to the camper by any means. The above de¬ 
scribes what he will do in your absence from 
camp. Let us see what happens when you are 
present. 
Along about sundown if you will take a stroll 
in the vicinity of your camp you will find Mr. 
Hedgehog on the march of invasion. He will 
generally approach by slow and easy stages un¬ 
til within striking distance. If you and your 
companions are making merry, rattling dishes, 
or working noisily, he will crouch in the neigh¬ 
borhood and await your turning in to rest your 
tired body. When all is quie't he boldly sallies 
forth. If your camp is a new one he approaches 
with some caution and circumspection for such 
a stupid beast, but if he has been invading the 
place before regularly, he comes right along in 
spite of your noise and presence and fairly defies 
you. When you are trying to sleep he will keep 
