The name given this animal leads to a supposition that it is a hog
covered with thorny quills,[AE] when, in fact, it only resembles that
animal by its grunting; in every other respect it differs from the
hog as much as any other animal, both in its outward appearance and
inferior conformation. Instead of a long head and ears, armed with
tusks, and terminated with a snout; instead of cloven feet, furnished
with hoofs like the hog; the porcupine has a short head like the
beaver, two large incisive teeth in each jaw, no tusks or canine teeth,
the upper lip divided like that of the hare, the ears round and flat,
and the feet armed with claws. Instead of a large stomach, with an
appendix in form of a cowl, the porcupine has only a single stomach,
with a large cæcum gut. The parts of generation are not apparent, as in
the boar, and its testicles are concealed in the groin. By all these
marks, together with its short tail, long whiskers, and divided lip it
approaches more to the hare or beaver than to the hog. The hedge-hog,
indeed, who, like the porcupine, is covered with prickles, somewhat
resembles the hog, for it has a long muzzle, terminated by a kind of
snout; but all these resemblances being so very slight it is clear that
the porcupine (_fig. 162._) is a particular and different species from
the hedge-hog, the beaver, the hare, or any other animal whatever.[AF]
[AE] This may be said of it in reference to its French, Italian, and
Spanish appellation, but not in regard to its English one. In German
too, its name conveys this idea; _stachet-schwein_ literally _swine
with thorns_.
[AF] It is probable that the resemblance of the flesh of this animal
with that of the hog has contributed more to his having the name which
he bears, than any supposed exterior or interior affinities between
them.
Travellers and naturalists have almost unanimously declared this animal
has the faculty of discharging its quills, and with such force as to
wound its foes at a great distance; and that these prickly quills have
the extraordinary property of penetrating farther into the flesh of
their own accord and power, as soon as the point has made an entrance.
This last circumstance is purely imaginary, without any foundation, and
the first is as false as the second. The error seems to have arisen
from this animal raising his prickles upright when he is irritated; and
as some of them are only inserted into the skin by a small pellicle
they easily fall off. We have had many living porcupines, but never
saw them dart any of their quills, even though violently agitated. It
is a matter of astonishment, therefore, that the gravest authors, both
ancient and modern, as well as the most sensible travellers, should
join in opinion respecting a circumstance so entirely false. Some
affirm that they have been wounded by this sort of darting; others,
assert that the quills are darted with such vengeance, as to pierce
a plank at a great distance. The marvellous commonly is pleasingly
believed, and increases in proportion to the number of hands it passes
through. Truth, on the contrary, diminishes in the same degree; and
in spite of the positive negative which I have placed on these two
fictions, I am persuaded, that many future writers will assert that the
porcupine darts his quills to a distance, and that when those quills
are separated from the body of the animal, they will of themselves,
and with their own exertions, penetrate deeper into those bodies in
which the point has entered.
However, in justice to Dr. Shaw, we must except him from the number of
these credulous travellers; "Of all the number of porcupines (says he)
which I have seen in Africa, I have never yet met with one, who could
dart their quills, however strongly he was irritated; their common
method of defence is to lie on one side, and when the enemy approaches
very near, to rise suddenly and wound him with the points of the other."
The porcupine, although originally a native of the hottest climates of
Africa and India, lives and multiplies in colder countries, such as
Persia, Spain, and Italy. Agricola says, that the porcupine had not
been transported into Europe, much before his time. They are found
in Spain, but more commonly in Italy, especially on the Appenine
mountains, in the environs of Rome.
Pliny, and other naturalists, have said, after Aristotle, that the
porcupine, like the bear, conceals himself during winter, and that
they bring forth in thirty days. We have not had it in our power to
verify these facts; and it is singular, that in Italy where this
animal is common, and where there has ever been skilful philosophers
and excellent observers of nature, that its history has never been
written by any of them. Aldrovandus in speaking on this subject, has,
like the rest, only copied Gesner; and the gentlemen of the academy,
who have dissected eight of these animals, say very little that has any
relation to their natural habits. We only learn from the testimonies
of travellers, and persons who have kept them in menageries, that the
porcupine in its domestic state, is neither savage nor furious, but
only anxious for liberty; that with the assistance of its fore teeth,
which are sharp and strong like those of the beaver, he easily cuts
through his wooden prison. It is also known that he feeds willingly on
fruits, cheese, and crumbs of bread; that in his wild state, he lives
upon roots and wild grain; that when he can enter a garden he makes
great havock[AG], eating the herbs, roots, fruit, &c. that he becomes
fat, like most other animals, toward the end of summer; and that the
flesh of this animal, although a little insipid, is tolerable eating.
[AG] The porcupine is a perfect scourge to the gardens of the Cape of
Good Hope; he commits great ravages in the plantations of cabbage, and
other kitchen herbs. The wild herb of which this animal is most fond,
is the _Calla Ethiopica_, which however, is so acrid, according to
Sparrman, that the root or the leaves applied to any part of the body
will raise a blister.
When the form, substance, and organization of the prickles of the
porcupine are considered, they are found to be tubes to which only
vanes are wanting to make them real feathers. They strike together
and make a noise as the animal walks; he can easily erect them in the
same manner as the peacock spreads the feathers of his tail, and as
easily smooths them again by the contraction of the cuticular muscle.
This muscle, therefore, has the same power, and is nearly of the same
formation in the porcupine as in some birds.