The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1903-07-07
HUNGRY HAPPY poRcUpINEs,


1henH DiaIiked.
The happiest hnhabitant Of the North
woods 10 the warm spring days Is the
/ porcupine Dther beasts and birds
have cares; the porcupine has none
They have to- search for food; the por'
cupine cats what il finds and when ii
finds nothing eats wood and bark.
It is reasonably happy at allseasons,
but superlatively SO just now, for all
day it sits upon the limb Of some great
hemIock or birch and swings slowly in
the sun. sound asleep and holding on
by instinct. The pleasing rays come
down through its quills and make it
comfortable all through, says the New
York Sun
A man in a walk Of a mile may see
half a dozen porcupines and every one
Of them will be high up, roosting Sc
curely and utterly blissful. If the
porcupine knew how, it would repeat
the Whitcomb Riley spring poem about
''Lazyin' around as dern please When
sh' green, you know, gifts up in TIL
trees;" but it does better than repeat
it, it acts it.
The porcupine is in no danger from
predatory animals except when on the
ground, and it is in very little danger
then. If foeman appears it merely
rolls itself into a ball exposing its inn
pregnable armor of quills, and Lies still
until the encroacher has investigated
and gone away with its nose full Of
stickers.
There is no wild animal that can get
the better Of a porcupine. Like Young
Critic, the whilom pugilist, it can't
hurt anything, but it has the entire
science Of self-defence in the knot of
its scarf and q thousand drawn bat
ties to it's credit
The only animal which slays the por-
cupine relentlessly and frequently is
man. Some Of the western states have
laws perpetually protecting the porcu-
pine on the theory that it is the only
flesh which man unarmed and lost
in the woods can capture with club
and eat, but nobody in the porcupine
districts pays any attention to these
laws.
Porcupines are killed when oppor-
tunity offers, because they are very
destructive They do most of their
feeding at night and they cost The
woods dwellers money.
A porcnpine will visit a small pier al
the edge Of lake, and in the morning
some of the dock will be inside Of the
porcupine and much of it will be in
splinters. In one night porcupine
will eat half of the blade of an oar and
then tackle the gunwale of the boat,
marring 1t seriously, if not running it.
There are many little hotels scatter
ed through the north woods, intended
for the entertainment Of fishermen
and hunters, and the porches of these
hotels all bear evidences Of the porcu-
pines teeth. If there be a grease spot
On the planking that is the spot the
will gnaw and it will gnaw
long after the grease has disappeared,
gnaw until there is hole clear
through
1t is supposed that it eats oars,
piers boat edges, porches and such
things for the slight traces of salt that
there may be on them from human
but this is only a theory. 1t
Is quite as likely that the porcupine |
eats them because they are accessible
and it feels that it must eat something.
II is frequently necessary to renew
small piers in out of the way lakes be-
cause Of this habit and, therefore, the
and guides, who would
much rather be drawing money from
guests than building piers or boats.
shoot the porcupine cruelty They
even make a sport of it, finding them
waying with the wind in trees and 1
shocking them out with high-power
rifles
Despite the efforts of humanity, how
'ver, the porcupines increase The
forth woods cover tremendous
'tretch Of territory and there are hun-
lreds Of square miles visited hardly
vice a year by Indian or white man.
n these places the forces Of the porcu-
lines recuperate and replenish to go
'ut and eat more oars.