The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-13
THE oUILLFuL PoRcuPINE.
He Has His Good Points, But They
Are Few Compared With His Bad


From the Chicago Record.
The porcupine is often a nuisance to
the settler in northern Michigan. His
faith in his arm0r has made him so fear
less that he often goes prOwling around
. houses at might. and even in the daytime,
| looking for something to eat.
Anything made-of wood that has an ar
tificial flavor attracts him. The salt-sat-
l urated slaves Of an old pork barrel and
| the peculiar taste and odOr OF a washtub
/ are what he likes best. but he is not very
/ particular. If nothing else offers he viii
/ attack the house itself and gnaw away
the wood from around the heads of rusty
nails. The sound OF his teeth raSping
/ away on a hemlOck board IS enough 10
drive sleep out of the township. Many a
| hOmesteader knows how il feels TO get up
/ in the middle of the night and kill a pOr
cupine and TO have the mosquitoes settle
| on his legs in thousands while he IS doing
/ it. Sometimes the porcupine climbs up
/ on the roof and IL is astonishing what a
noise he can make there. He tramps from
one end of the house to the other and
/ brings his feet down as emphatically as
| If he weighed fifty pounds. The quilis
/ on his sides and tail rattle on the shingles,
and occasionally he stops to niDble. As
you lie awake and listen TO him you Won
| der whether he is likely to gnaw hole
/ in the roof large enough 10 drop through,
and how il would seem to have him tuIn-
BILE down into your bed.
| If the settler hasa dog he viii probably
be Obliged to pull quilts out OF its nose TWO
! or three times before il learns to let por-
! cupines alone. But dogs are not the only
1 animals that suffer, a young calf always
/ has firm belief that everything in the
| world is good to chew, and he sees no rea-
son why a pOrcupine should be an eNeep-
ton to the rule, A year or two ago a oull
4 calf particularly strong in this belief made
/ his appearance on farm in the upper pen
/ insuia. He would apply suction 10 any
| thing he could set at, though MS owner 5
] coattails seemed to suit him best. II they
| were ssible-which was not always
! the case-he would get hold of one of the
! spokes of a wagon wheel and pump away
| on it a S fiercey as if he We're the suction
| hose of a steam IRE engine. After about
/ fifteen minutes he would give IL up with a
| disguised expression which seemed TO say
] that wagon must be out of order, and
| tackle a bale of hay. One morning he turn
| ed up at the stable with thirty-tour qulus
| sticking in his nose and lower Up. he hid
| evidently met a porcupne and had at
! tempted to perform the usual operation
| with even less than the usual success. lie
/ looked as If he had grown beard ana
moustache in a single night. 1t took Two
men to hold him down while another puueu
/ out the quilts.
/ visits in the daytime one afternoon d
| young lady, who was spending the sum
| mer at one of the smaller lakes IN North
| ern Michigan, walked down to the beach,
| spread her shawl on the ground, ana sal
j down upon il TO read novel; she nau
not been there long before she saw an I'M
| mense pOrcuptne, the very grandfather OF
| all the porcupines, coming toward hef,
| his quilts dragging on the ground as ne
| walked. She probably knows now now
little Miss Muffet felt when the big spider
| made his appearance, but she was not
! to be frightened away, and she sat per-
| peCtly still to seeg how close he would
| come. He did not stop until he was on
| the further corner of her shawl. Then
he sat down and stared at her, and she
| stared at him, till gentleman came
| along Two was company but three was
a crowd, and the porcupine left.
In personal appearance the poreuplne is
! sgsefFf
| suddenly in your WoOdshed he viii some
| times lift his forepaws from the ground
and sit there staring Stupldly at you. lis
| face, surrounded by the quills and coarse
| hairs that slant back from all around it,
! reminds you of a monkey or little man.
! The eyes are small, the lips are kept apart
| by the long teeth, and the expression is
| sad and aged. The body is very thick and
| the neoka and legs. are very short. The
| the upper side of the body from the eyes
| to the end of the tail They vary from
| three-quarters of an inch to four or hve
| inches in length, and are one-sixteenth
| to one-eighth of an inch in diameter. At
| the outer end they are dark brown, almost
! black, but at the inner end they are or
| light straw color. They are hollow ana
| filled with air, and If one of them is laid
! upon live Goals 1t will twist and wriggle
! as if it were alive, and even jump into
| the air before it finally burns up.
| Ordinarilyithe quilts slant backward at
| an angle of about 40 degrees but when the
| animals temper is reused or he is fright
| ened ne can raise q part of those on his
! back and sides so that they stand straight
| out From behind it looks as if a ruffle
| several inches wide had been fastened
/ around lbs body, dark at the outer edge
| and lighter colored within. the story
! that he can throw his quilts is a myth,
/ but they are so loosely attached to the
! skin that a touch is enough to remove
/ them and to leave them sticking into
/ whatever they come in contact with. The
i barbs on the points of the quilts are so
| small as to be almost invisible but they
| are large enough to do their work and
| will draw the quill deeper and deeper into
/ the flesh unless il is pulled out at once
| Yet a porcupine has his good points as
| well as his troublesome ones. His flesh is
! quite a. delicacy, especially when you
! don't know what you are eating 1t is
| somewhat like chicken, and there Is no
| reason why it Should not be good, for
he is a clearly animal and his diet is
! strictly vegetable. To a man lost IN the
/ woods without weapons or food he may
| be a godsend, for he is the only animal
| that a man has any chance of killing
! with a club. 1t is said that in some places
/ the law forbids the shooting of porcupines
| by hunters, that they may furnish food
for the starving, who can't get anything
A porcupine's claws are long, very
| sharp, strongly curved and followed out
! from the under side, somewhat after the
/ fashion of a stove leg, so as to give the
| greatest strength with tine least weight
| His froTk teeth project so far that he
| can gnaW a hollow in the middle of the
| fiat side of a board. The entire tooth
/ when dug out from the jaw, Is semicir-
! cular, like That of a beaver. The cutting
| end is shaped like a chisel, and is almost
| as sharp.
| With his heavy, squat body and short
| legs he is very slow, and clumsy. If he
makes UP his mind that you are actually
| going to attack him he moves off with
| about as much freedom and grace as a
| cook stove might exhibit if it were to
| wheel around on it's hind legs and go out
/ doors and clircb tree. When he is really
| alarmed and has decided that he must
| hustle for dear life, he is a very comical
| sight He tries to makeup SSr,'nis- SNORT
ness of his legs by reaching forward to
| their utmost length at every step, and
/ picking his feet up and setting them down
| again as fast as he can. He is a perfect
| picture of frantic anxiety to go some
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