DERIVATION OF PORCUPINE 
spelling, and tending to the concealment of the origin 
of its name, illustrate the principal external feature of 
this large rodent. You cannot, however, tell the “ war- 
like porcupine’ by its quills ; for such thick, solid and 
sharp hairs, they are nothing else, are common, not 
only among rodents, but in the insectivora, and even 
in the spiny anteater of Australia, which is a representa- 
tive of the most ancient type of mammal known. How 
then is a porcupine to be distinguished from an over- 
grown rat, a magnified representative of the spiny 
mice ? For one thing, it has spines on its tail, which the 
spiny mice have not. But to be absolutely certain, 
recourse must be had to bony and other internal char- 
acters. The porcupines are also larger than any other 
spiny rodent, and there is of course no possibility of 
confusing them with sharp-nosed and sharp-toothed 
hedgehog, or Centetes. The tail will betray the mouse— 
Show him a mouse’s tail and he will guess 
With metaphysic swiftness at the mouse 
and at the Porcupine. The spines have of course 
given its name to the Porcupine. But it is not certain 
whether the derivation from ‘ Porc Epic,” i.e. pig- 
spine, is correct, or the more probable “ Porte Epic,” 
i.e. spine bearer. As to the pig alternative, the fond- 
ness for calling beasts pigs with a qualification, is uni- 
versal. The porpoise is the pig fish; the “ Porcus 
marinus ’’ of the ancients was a beast of some kind, 
but one does not know what. The only claim which 
the porcupine puts forth to this derivation is that, 
according to the Indian naturalist, Jerdon, the flesh 
of ,the porcupine resembles roast pig, with a dash 
of veal, however, a flavour that seems, according to 
travellers and gastronomic experimenters, to be the 
flavour of almost everything new to the palate. The 
spines enter largely into the genuine natural history of 
the porcupine, as well as into legend. They are plainly 
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