The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)

Chapter 156: CHAP. 53. (35.)—THE PORCUPINE.

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The volume assembles an encyclopedic survey of the known world and its living inhabitants, moving from detailed regional geography and descriptions of seas, rivers, islands, and peoples to extended treatments of humanity, its generation, anatomy, and the origins and inventions of arts. Subsequent books catalog terrestrial animals—their habits, capture, and uses—followed by comprehensive observations on fish and marine creatures, their sizes and behaviors. Accounts mix naturalistic description, reported marvels, medicinal uses derived from animals, and travel and secondhand reports, organized as topical chapters intended as a practical compendium of natural and human phenomena.

CHAP. 53. (35.)—THE PORCUPINE.

India and Africa produce the porcupine, the body of which is covered with prickles. It is a species of hedgehog, but the quills of the porcupine are longer, and when it stretches the skin, it discharges them like so many missiles. With these it pierces the mouths of the dogs which are pressing hard upon it, and even sends its darts to some distance further.1836 It conceals itself during the winter months, which, indeed, is the nature of many animals, and more especially the bear.