106 THE BOOK OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 



Summer. They are at first blind, and the spines are soft and white. 

 The latter, however, soon harden as the little ones come to run 

 about and secure provender on their own account. To see a mother 

 Hedgehog with her young is one of the most delightful sights in 

 the whole realm of nature. 



Outside Britain the range of the Hedgehog includes China, 

 Amurland, Scandinavia, Italy, Asia Minor and Syria. Its range is 

 not restricted to the low-lying portions of the regions inhabited, for 

 it is found at as high an altitude as six thousand feet in the Alps, 

 and still higher in the Caucasus, where it ascends to an elevation of 

 more than eight thousand feet. 



Mention need only be made by name of the Algerian Hedgehog 

 (Fig. 78), which represents one of the African species found both 

 in the North and South of the great continent. One species there 

 is interesting, because it has lost the inner toe of the hind-foot. 

 There are in all almost twenty known species of Hedgehogs. 



TENRECS. — At first sight this animal (Fig. 79) might pass 

 muster for a Hedgehog, but it is relegated to a different genus of the 

 Insectivores. As a matter of fact, the Common Tenrec of Mada- 

 gascar is stated to be the nearest living relative of the Marsupials 

 of Australia and America. This curious relationship is brought 

 about by reason of the teeth of both the Common Tenrec and the 

 carnivorous Marsupials being somewhat identical ; the skulls are 

 very similar, and the number of young also resemble the Marsupials 

 and go to enhance the kinship. The Common Tenrec — which is 

 much less Hedgehog-like than the Hedgehog-Tenrec, which bears 

 short particoloured bristles — often has as many as fifteen or sixteen 

 young ones at a birth, whilst twenty-one have been recorded. 



It should be stated with emphasis here the great importance in 

 the classification of animals which is attached to the number, posi- 

 tion and structure of the teeth. The young zoologist will find very 

 often when pursuing his studies that the teeth of an animal at once 

 identify it and go to prove the position it occupies in the scale of 

 animal life. This book does not pretend to be a dry scientific 

 discourse upon anatomy, and it does not come within the province 

 of the writer to enlarge upon this subject. He merely makes the 

 suggestion that the young student should follow up the matter 

 on his own account if, by reading this volume, he has been suffi- 

 ciently attracted to pay attention to some of the living mammals 

 of the world. 



