. The animals of the world. Brehm's life of animals;. Mammals. UKSON OR CANADIAN PORCUPINE. Formerly plentiful in the northern United States but now quite rare in this country, although not so scarce in Canada is the Urson, otherwise called the Canadian Porcupine, of which an admirable illustration is here siven. The strange, blunt head, the long, erectile hair interspersed with spines, the four strong claws of the fore feet are shown in the animals here portrayed. {Eriihizon dorsalum.) it has entirely denuded the upper branches of bark. It is most partial to the tenderest shoots or seedling t
. The animals of the world. Brehm's life of animals;. Mammals. UKSON OR CANADIAN PORCUPINE. Formerly plentiful in the northern United States but now quite rare in this country, although not so scarce in Canada is the Urson, otherwise called the Canadian Porcupine, of which an admirable illustration is here siven. The strange, blunt head, the long, erectile hair interspersed with spines, the four strong claws of the fore feet are shown in the animals here portrayed. {Eriihizon dorsalum.) it has entirely denuded the upper branches of bark. It is most partial to the tenderest shoots or seedling trees. A single Urson may ruin hundreds of them •during one ; Audubon affirms that he has passed through woods, in which all the trees had been stripped by the Urson, producing an appear- ance similar to that in- duced when a forest has been devastated by fire. Elms, poplars and firs fur- nish its favorite food, and therefore usually suffer more than other trees from its destructiveness. The nest of the Urson is ^^enerally found in holes in trees or in rocky hollows, and in it the young, usually two, more rarely three or four in number, are born in April or May. Those that are taken out of the nest and kept in confinement, unlike the common Euro- pean Porcupine, soon be- come accustomed to their master and to their sur- roundings. They may be fed on all kinds of vegeta- bles and are very fond of bread. If given the free- dom of the garden, they mount trees and eat the bark and leaves. Audubon says that an Urson he had in his possession never exhibited anger, except when some one tried to remove it from a tree which it was in the habit of mounting. " Our Urson had gradually become very tame, and seldom made any use of its nails, so that we could occasionally open its cage and afford it the pleasure of a free walk in the garden. It knew us: when we called it, tempting it with a sweet potato or an apple, it slowly turned its head toward us, gave us a gentle, frie
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectmammals, bookyear1895
