THE CANADIAN PORCUPINE. 
It climbs the trees and strips them clean 
Of leaf, and fruit, and bark; 
Then, creeping where no life is seen, 
O'er branches grim and stark, 
Begins anew, the bark beneath, 
The endless grind of claws and teeth, 
Till trees, denuded, naked rise 
Like spectres painted on the skies. 
Fretful it may be, as its quills are sharp, 
But with its teeth it stills the sylvan harp. 
C. C. M. 
PORMERLY plentiful in the 
northern United States, but now 
quite rare in this country, 
although not so scarce in Can- 
ada, is the Urson, otherwise called the 
Canadian Porcupine. It is the tree or 
climbing species and is distinguished 
from other members of the family by 
its slender body and tail of greater or 
less length. The Urson attains a length 
of thirty-two inches, seven and one- 
half of which are included in the tail. 
A thick set fur, which attains a length 
of four and one-half inches on the nape 
of the neck and changes into sharp 
spines on the under parts of the body 
and the tip of the tail, clothes the ani- 
mal. 
The Canadian Porcupine is a native 
of the forests of North America, rang- 
ing as far south as Virginia and Ken- 
tucky and as far west as the Rocky 
Mountains. "The Urson, says Cart- 
wright, "is an accomplished climber 
and probably never descends a tree in 
winter, before it has entirely denuded 
the upper branches of bark. It is most 
partial to the tenderest roots or seed- 
ling trees. A single Urson may ruin 
hundreds of them during one winter." 
Audubon states that he passed through 
woods, in which all the trees had been 
stripped by this animal, producing an 
appearancesimilar to that induced when 
a forest has been devastated by fire. 
Elms, Poplars, and Firs furnish its fa- 
vorite food, and therefore usually suf- 
fer more than other trees from its de- 
structiveness. 
The nest of this Porcupine is gener- 
ally found in holes in trees or rocky 
hollows, and in it the young, usually 
two, more rarely three or four in num- 
ber, are born in April or May. The 
young are easily tamed. Audubon says 
that one which he possessed never ex- 
hibited anger, except when some one 
tried to remove it from a tree which it 
was in the habit of mounting. It had 
gradually become very tame and sel- 
dom made any use of its nails, so that 
he would open its cage and afford it a 
free walk in the garden. When he 
called it, tempting it with a sweet po- 
tato or an apple, it turned its head 
toward him, gave him a gentle, friendly 
look and then slowly hobbled up to 
him, took the fruit out of his hand, sat 
down on its hind legs and raised the 
food to its mouth with its fore-paws. 
Frequently when it would find the door 
of the family room open it would enter, 
approach and rub itself against a mem- 
ber of the family looking up pleadingly 
as if asking for some dainty. Audu- 
bon tried in vain to arouse it to an ex- 
hibition of anger. When a Dog came 
in view matters were different. Then 
it instantly assumed the defensive. 
With its nose lowered, all its quills 
erect, and its tail moving back and 
forth, it was ready for the fray. The 
Dog sprang upon the Porcupine with 
open mouth. That animal seemed to 
swell up in an instant to nearly double 
its size, sharply watched the Dog and 
at the right moment dealt it such a 
well-aimed blow with its tail that the 
Mastiff lost courage and set up a loud 
howl of pain. His mouth, tongue, and 
nose were full of Porcupine quills. He 
could not close his jaws, but hurried 
open-mouthed off the premises. 
Although the spines were immediately 
extracted, the Dog's head was terribly 
swollen for several weeks afterward, 
and it was months before he entirely 
recovered. 
186 
