PORCUPINE, the name of the largest European terrestrial rodent, distinguished by the spiny covering from which it takes its name. The European porcupine (Hystrix cristata) is the typi cal representative of a family of Old World rodents, the Hystri cidae, all the members of which have the same protective cover ing. They range over the south of Europe, the whole of Africa, India and the Malay Archipelago as far east as Borneo. They are all stout, heavily-built ani mals, with blunt rounded heads, fleshy mobile snouts, and coats of thick cylindrical or flattened spines, which form the whole cov ering of their body, and are not intermingled with ordinary hairs.
Their habits are strictly ter restrial. The common porcupine, which occurs throughout the south of Europe and North and West Africa, is replaced in South Africa by H. africaeaustralis and in India by the hairy-nosed porcupine (Acanthion leucura).
There are several smaller species with long tails in north-east India, the Malay region and Africa. In the New World the porcupines are represented by the family Erethizontidae. The
spines are mixed with long soft hairs. They are less nocturnal in their habits; and with one exception live entirely in trees, having in correspondence with this long prehensile tails. They include three genera, of which the first is represented by the Canadian porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum), a stout, heavily built animal, with long hairs almost or quite hiding its spines, four front- and five hind-toes, and a short, stumpy tail. It is a native of the greater part of Canada and the United States, wherever there is any remnant of the original forest left. Syne theres contains some eight or ten species, known as tree-porcu pines, found throughout tropical South America, with one extend ing into Mexico. They are of a lighter build than the ground porcupines, with short, close spines, often mixed with hairs, and prehensile tails. The hind-feet have only four toes, owing to the suppression of the first.