Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/736

 T16 PORCUPINE erally only four nearly equal toes, with long, compressed, and curved claws ; there are some- times five toes on the hind feet ; the soles are thickly studded with small flattened warts; the skull short and broad, with a minute lach- rymal bone forming no part of the lachrymal canal ; the palate between the molars is on a lower level than the anterior portion ; the mo- lars converge in front, and are distinctly root- ed, each having a fold of enamel on either side, the worn crown presenting two deep trans- verse cavities surrounded by enamel ; incisors small ; anterior and posterior clinoid processes wanting. This subfamily contains the genera erethizon (F. Guv.), cercoldbes (Brandt), and chcetomys (Gray). The genus erethizon has a non-prehensile tail, short, thick, flattened, cov- ered at the base above with hairs and spines, and on the under side and at the apex with stiff bristles ; nostrils close together ; feet short Canada Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatua). and broad ; toes four or five, with long curved claws ; hind feet with a distinct inner toe with claw, without any projecting semicircular lobe on the inner side ; upper lip slightly notched, but with no naked mesial line; body stout and covered with a long and dense fur from which the spines project; limbs short and strong. The best known species is the Canada porcu- pine (E. dorsatus, F. Cuv.), about 2^ ft. long, weighing from 20 to 30 Ibs. ; it appears larger than it really is, from the length of the hair and spines; the Tur is generally dark brown, soft, woolly, and grayish next the skin, coarse and bristly in some parts, 6 or V in. long on the back, the coarse hairs usually with dirty white points, giving to the whole a hoary tint ; the spines, more or less hidden by the fur, and abundant on the upper surface of the head, body, and tail, are 2 or 3 in. long, white with dark points; the tail is about 10 in. additional to the above length ; the incisors deep orange. It is very clumsy, with back much arched, snout thick and tumid, ears short and round, and tongue rough with scales. It is found be- tween northern Pennsylvania and lat. 67 N., and to the east of the upper Missouri river. It is an excellent though a slow climber ; it is not able to escape its enemies by flight, but cannot be attacked even by the largest carniv- ora with impunity; dogs, wolves, the lynx, and the couguar have been known to die from the inflammation produced by its quills ; these are loosely attached to the skin and barbed at the point, so that they easily penetrate, retain their hold, and tend continually to become more deeply inserted ; when irritated it erects its quills, and by a quick lateral movement of the tail strikes its enemy, leaving the nose, mouth, and tongue beset with its darts ; it has no power of shooting the quills. The food consists of vegetable substances, especially the inner bark and tender twigs of the elm, bass- wood, and hemlock; it seldom quits a tree while the bark is uneaten, except in cold weather, when it descends to sleep in a hol- low stump or cave ; as it kills the trees which it ascends, its depredations are often serious. It is often erroneously called hedgehog in New England. The nest is made in a hollow tree, and the young, generally two, are born in April or May. It is almost as large as a beaver, and is eagerly hunted by the Indians, who eat the flesh, and use the quills for ornament, often dyeing them with bright colors ; it is very tenacious of life ; it does not hibernate, as the European porcupine is said to do. This animal shows admirably that the quills are only modi- fied hairs, as it presents quills on the back, spiny hairs on the sides, and coarse bristly hairs on the under surface, passing into each other in regular gradation. The yellow-haired porcupine (E. epixanthus, Brandt) is smaller than the preceding, blackish brown, the long hairs of the body tipped with greenish yellow ; it is found W. of the Missouri to the Pacific ocean. In the genus cercolabes, which includes the tree porcupines, the body is similarly armed with spines and spiny hairs; the tail is long and prehensile; all the feet four-toed, with long and curved nails, the hind feet having each a rudimentary inner one, a small nailless tubercle, and being with the palm much ex- panded by a semicircular lobe on the inner side ; the soles are rough and naked, the claws long, and the hind feet so articulated that the soles are directed inward ; the lobe can be bent inward, being supported by several bones, some supernumerary; the tail is thick and muscular at the base, slender and bare above and pre- hensile at the end, the upper surface being applied to the branches, and the tail coiled in a direction opposite to that of the monkeys of the same country. The muzzle is very mov- able, hairy, thick, and obliquely truncated ; the eyes small but prominent ; ears small and spar- ingly clothed with hair; the incisors are nar- row. They emit a disagreeable odor, some- what like that of garlic ; the food consists of fruits, leaves, and tender bark ; they are usu-