While encamped near Sherman Creek Pass in the Kettle River Mountains my companion and I heard a crunching of gravel from the road fifty feet away. We listened intently, wondering what person would be abroad in the mountains at midnight. In the vicinity of our car, concealed from our view by trees, the noise stopped, to be followed a few minutes later by a rasping and clattering that could be heard far away. We raced to the car to discover a large porcupine crouched on the running board by a pile of "pick-up" antlers of the white-tailed deer left there by us. The "porkie" had been chewing on these, heedless of the noise made by the loose antlers clashing against the metal side of the car. [Illustration: FIG. 125. Distribution of the porcupine, _Erethizon epixanthum_ in Washington. Boundaries between ranges of subspecies are uncertain.] In Washington the single young is born late in May or early in June. There are two pairs of mammae, both pectoral, of which only the anterior are functional. =Erethizon dorsatum epixanthum= Brandt _Erethizon epixanthus_ Brandt, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, ser. 6, 3 (Sci. Nat. vol. =1=): 390, 1835. _Erethizon dorsatus epixanthus_ True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 7:600, 1885. _Erethizon epixanthum epixanthum_ Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 128:437, April 29, 1924. _Erethizon dorsatum epixanthum_ Anderson and Rand, Canadian Jour. Research, 21:293, September 24, 1943. _Type._--None. Type locality California. _Racial characters._--Size large, total length of adults approximately 30 inches; tail long (nearly one-third of total length), thick, heavy and spiny; body stout; legs short; claws long and curved; ears and eyes small; body spines short, thick and most abundant on posterior part of back, longer and more slender on sides and shoulders; guard hairs of shoulders and sides long, almost concealing spines; fur of underparts shorter; color variable, brown, black or yellow. In winter the fur is longer and woolly, concealing spines. _Distribution._--The Columbian Plateau and the Blue Mountains. _Remarks._--Anderson and Rand (1943A: 295) ascribe two races to Washington. With inadequate material myself to verify this ascription. I think it probable that the northern forest porcupine and the Great Basin animal are racially different. In consequence the available names, _nigrescens_ and _epixanthum_, are here applied, pending a revision of the entire genus. =Erethizon dorsatum nigrescens= Allen _Erethizon epixanthus nigrescens_ Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 19:558, October 10, 1903. _Erethizon epixanthum nigrescens_ Miller, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 128:437, April 29, 1924. _Erethizon dorsatum nigrescens_ Anderson and Rand, Canadian Jour. Research, 21:293, September 24, 1943.