. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE CANADIAN PORCUPINE. ^\^ an opening which would appear at first sight to be hardly large enough to permit the passage of an animal of only half its size. The total length of the common Porcupine is about three feet six inches, the tail being about six inches long. Its gait is plantigrade, slow, and clumsy, and as it walks, its long quills shake and rattle in a very curious manner. Its muzzle is thick and heavy, and its eyes small and pig-like. The Urson, Cawquaw, or Canadian Porcupine, is a native of North America, where it is most destructive to the
. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE CANADIAN PORCUPINE. ^\^ an opening which would appear at first sight to be hardly large enough to permit the passage of an animal of only half its size. The total length of the common Porcupine is about three feet six inches, the tail being about six inches long. Its gait is plantigrade, slow, and clumsy, and as it walks, its long quills shake and rattle in a very curious manner. Its muzzle is thick and heavy, and its eyes small and pig-like. The Urson, Cawquaw, or Canadian Porcupine, is a native of North America, where it is most destructive to the trees among which it lives. Its chief food consists of living bark, which it strips from the branches as cleanly as if it had been furnished with a sharp knife. When it begins to feed, it ascends the tree, com- mences at the highest branches, and eats its way regularly down- ward. Having finished one tree, it takes to another, and then to a third, always choosing those that run in the same line ; so that its path through the woods may easily be traced by the line of barked and dying trees which it leaves in its track. A single Urson has been known to de- stroy a hundred trees in a single winter, and another is recorded as having killed some two or three acres of timber. The Urson is not so fully defended with spines as the preceding animal, but is covered with long, coarse, blackish brown hair, among which the short pointed quills are so deeply set, that, except in the head, tail, and hinder quarters, they are scarcely perceptible. These spines are dyed of various colours by the American In- dians, and are then used in the decoration of their hunting- pouches, mocassins, and other articles, and after the quills are extracted, the remainder of the fur is sufficiently soft to be used for clothing. The flesh .of the Urson is considered eatable, and is said to bear some re- semblance to flabby pork. The length of the Urson is not quite four feet, the head and body measuring rather
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1884
