Abstract
JEAN BAPTISTE TAVERNIER, in his “Travels in India” (translated by V. Ball, 1889, vol. ii. p. 397), mentions a case similar to what Mr. Crawshay describes under this heading in your last number (p. 558). “At a distance of two or three leagues from the fort [at the Cape], the Dutch found a dead lion which had four porcupine's quills in its body which had penetrated the flesh three-fourths of their length. It was accordingly concluded that the porcupine had killed the lion. The skin is still kept with the spines sticking in the foot.” Thereon it is noted by the English translator that “numerous cases are recorded of tigers having died in India from this cause, and also of occasion ally having been found when shot to have porcupine's quills sticking in them.” The old Chinese motto, “the hedgehog defeats the tiger, and the serpent stops the leopard” (in Liu Ngan, “Hwui-nan-tsze,” second century B.C.), is probably founded on observations allied to these.
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MINAKATA, K. The Natural Prey of the Lion. Nature 59, 585 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/059585b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/059585b0
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