IT may appear out of place to discuss this creature which has no sportive quality whatever, but its trail is so conspicuous in snow that it cannot be passed without being noticed, and the tyro, attracted by the size of the tracks, will in many instances follow it, thinking he is on the trail of something else.
A short time ago I trailed a supposedly lost, inexperienced hunting companion who had run across the trail of a "bear," as he thought, and followed and killed "Bruin," who happened to be up a tree. When I caught up with the young fellow, he was contemplating his broken gunstock, smashed in finishing the "varmint," but proudly exhibited, to my great hilarity, the "bear" which may have weighed about twenty pounds, and whose fur consisted mainly of quills.
PORCUPINE
Before I got acquainted with the "pine-porker," I tried in vain for a period of four months to ascertain the identity of an animal whose tracks I frequently saw on a road. Only the marks of the soles were visible there, and none of the many men I asked knew that track, though they knew the animal which made it very well, as developed later, when tracking conditions became so that I could follow the trail to its end.
If conditions are half-favorable, the imprints of the toenails—four on the forefeet and five on the hind feet—are always visible.
PORCUPINE TRACKS
(1) Walk. (2) Run.