Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

The hunters therefore wait until the bear is nearly exhausted by the heat before they attack it. It generally appears to be harmless while traveling through the mountains, but becomes very dangerous when wounded. It is one of the singular facts of the animal kingdom that some quadrupeds which appear to be naturally stupid and sluggish are yet capable of being taught to do things which they never would do of themselves. Creatures possessed apparently of a very low order of intelligence are susceptible of instruction, and under man's patient tutelage can be made to perform all kinds of tricks. At the command of his master, the horse will walk a narrow plank, pick out a handkerchief of a particular color from a number having other colors, shoot off a gun, and, in company with other horses, go through a military drill, or waltz, and keep step to music. The sagacity of the dog is proverbial. This animal can be so taught as to surprise us by its remarkable feats. The same is true of bears, especially the jungle bear, which can be made to go through. a great variety of movements quite foreign to its natural actions and habits.

The Hedgehog.

The common hedgehog, an insectivorous animal, has a heavy form, short limbs, and slow motion. The upper part of the body is covered with sharp prickles about an inch long, arranged in clusters, divergent and crossing each other, of a brownish-black with a white point; the head is clothed with hard, brownish hairs and the under part of the body with a dirty white fur. The five toes are armed with long nails, the middle the longest, suitable for digging. The soles are covered with naked tubercles, possessing an exquisite sense of touch.

The animal is able to roll itself into a ball and preserve this attitude as long as it pleases without much effort, presenting to its enemies a thorny mass, which the most voracious and powerful dare not attack. The hedgehog conceals itself during the day in burrows or natural holes, coming out at night in search of worms, insects, snails and fruits. There is no hedgehog in America; the porcupine, armed with quills, is sometimes called by this name.

The usual residence of these animals, which are found in the temperate parts of Asia and Europe, is in thickets. It may be in some degree rendered domestic, and has been frequently introduced into houses for the purpose of destroying cockroaches and beetles, which it pursues and devours with great avidity. At the commencement of winter the hedgehog wraps itself up in a warm nest of dried moss, grass, or leaves, and sleeps out the rigors of the season. When taken out and placed before a fire it

soon recovers from torpidity. The female produces from three to six blind ones at a birth, which are soon covered with prickles, like those of the parent animal.

The hedgehog is said to be very delicate eating. The skin was used by the ancients for the purpose of a clothes brush. The most violent animal poisons have no effect on the hedgehog. This renders it of peculiar value in forests, where it destroys a great many noxious reptiles. Fights between the hedgehogs and vipers have been witnessed, in which, after a very severe and prolonged encounter, the hedgehog seized the viper by

[graphic][merged small]

the head, which it ground between its teeth, compressing the fangs and glands of poison, and then devouring every part of the body. The hedgehog received several wounds on the ears, mouth, and even the tongue, without appearing to experience any of the ordinary symptoms produced by the venom of the viper. According to physiological notes it is not easily understood, how a warm-blooded animal could stand the bites of the viper, which would cause the decomposition of the blood in other animals and occasion death.

The Brazilian tree-porcupine is abundant in Guiana, Brazil and Bolivia,

and feeds on the fruit of palms. Like its cousins it sleeps during the day sitting on a tree. It greatly dislikes to be touched and by a sudden. movement tries to intimidate any one who approaches it. When caught by the tail it becomes tame and pliable and then can be taken on the arm without trying to bite. When irritated, it erects its quills and then appears to be twice as large as it really is

The ancients were acquainted with the porcupine, and Aristotle alludes to the story of its power in shooting its quills to a distance at its enemy, showing that this illusion had thus early taken possession of the popular mind. The tale is dwelt upon by Pliny with his usual love of the marvelous, and Ælian, Oppian, and Claudian have repeated the story with exaggerations. In suddenly raising his spiny armor, a loose quill may be detached by the porcupine, but the power of throwing them to a distance does not exist except when shedding its coat.

A Creature with a Formidable Armor.

The use of the quills is simply that of a defensive armor, but as this seems a cumbrous device for such a purpose, we are led to insist on finding other advantages to be derived from them. Hence, Thunberg tells us that he was informed that the Ceylonese porcupine had a very curious method of fetching water for its young, namely, the quills in the tail are said to be hollow, and to have a hole at the extremity, and the animal can bend them in such a manner as that they can be filled with water, which afterward is discharged in the nest among the young. Such inventions, to help nature out, so as to satisfy a narrow conception of her works, are doubtless the source of many of the common-place errors in respect to animals of peculiar organization; but the truth certainly is, that the porcupine finds his quill armor an exceedingly convenient, useful, and effective defence, and he would be as imperfect without it as a wasp without its sting, or a cock without its spurs.

The porcupine is an exceedingly stupid creature, and hence, no doubt, nature supplied him with his formidable covering as a compensation for his lack of brains; as an indispensable provision in order to put him on a level with other brutes of his order. The modes by which nature equalizes her favors are infinitely diversified: some animals she endows with instincts, some with gifts analogous to reason, some with strength, some with dexterity, some with defensive or offensive weapons. The hare has speed, the squirrel activity, the marmot caution, the beaver ingenuity, the rat most or all of these qualities; the porcupine, destitute of all, has his quiver of arrows, which he shakes in the face of his foe, to frighten him if he is a coward, and to pierce him if he has the courage to make an at

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

PORCUPINE AND ITS YOUNG.

[ocr errors]

tack. In case of need, he will run backward at his enemy, and thus strike his sharp pointed arrows into him. Without his quills, the porcupine would seem to be a singularly unmeaning, uncouth, and helpless sot; with them, he has a position in history, and figures in literature as the emblem of human fretfulness and conceit.

Rodents are called the animals which are furnished with two remarkably large and long front teeth in each jaw, but which have no canine teeth. Their feet have claws and are formed for leaping as well as for running. The porcupines, which belong to this family, have two front teeth, set obliquely in each jaw, and grinders; they have four toes on the fore and

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][subsumed]

five on the hind feet, and the body is covered with spires intermixed with hair. To the hedgehog they have a further similitude than in the spiry covering of their bodies. The best known species is the Canada. porcupine, about two and one half feet long, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds. It appears larger than it really is, from the length of the hair and spires.

The fur is generally dark brown, soft, woolly and grayish next the skin; coarse and bristly in some parts, six or seven inches long on the back; the coarse hair usually having dirty white points, giving to the whole a hoary tint. The spires more or less hidden by the fur and abundant on the upper surface of the head, body and tail, are several inches long, and white with dark points. It is found between northern Pennsylvania and

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »