Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/180

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There remain to be considered certain characteristics which can not be very accurately designated by any well-understood and precise term. I refer to what is sometimes called by biologists a high degree of specialization, and more particularly specialization in the direction of bizarre and conspicuous features.

The porcupine is a good example. This animal is of absolutely no economic importance to civilized man. It lives in the forests and eats little save twigs and bark. Its flesh was eaten to some extent by Indians and its quills were prized by them as ornaments, but neither flesh nor armature are valued by whites. It might be supposed that a few porcupines could find sufficient food and shelter in any small wood lot and that they would remain there unmolested because of their inoffensive habits. Yet few species have disappeared more rapidly before the advance of civilization.

The animal had few natural enemies because of the efficient protection of its spiny armature, consequently it had no fear and was a slow breeder. Its spines, however, afford no protection from man, and there can be no doubt that more porcupines have been killed from curiosity excited by the peculiar appearance of the animals and mere wantonness than from any other reason.

One species of armadillo is found in the Unites States chiefly in Texas. It is an animal with a head and body about a foot in length and a tapering tail of equal length. Its body is covered with an armor of bony plates, quite solidly Joined together in most places, but with overlapping Joints in the middle. When attacked it curls up, covering the poorly protected belly, throat and nose with its tail, and hence becoming invulnerable to teeth and claws. It is harmless in habit, living chiefly on insects. Its peculiar appearance frequently leads people to kill it from no motive except curiosity and wanton love of slaughter. Recently a tourist trade has grown up in the armor, which is made into a basket, the tip of the tail being brought forward to the neck and fastened there to form the basket handle. Thus an economic relation is growing out of the bizarre appearance of the animal and its extermination seems to be only a matter of a few years, unless it receives better protection.

Horned toads, lizards and, to some extent, tortoises and snakes are being slowly exterminated because their appearance arouses the desire to kill and not because of any economic motive. A few comparatively harmless species of insects, namely, the walking stick or devil's darning needle, the praying mantis or rear-horse, and the rhinoceros beetle have been nearly exterminated in some parts of the country merely because their unusual appearance arouses an interest in them and their life is forfeited therefor.