IXSECTIYOEA. 



551 



general resemblance to mice, but the snout is greatly lengthened. 

 They are fond of the vicinity of water ; and one pretty little species, 

 figured above, is eminently aquatic. It swims and dives with great 

 rapidity and elegance. The Shrews live in holes that they excavate 

 in the earth. They rarely come out, except in the evening, and live 

 entirely upon worms and insects. Like many other harmless and 

 inoffensive creatures, they have been falsely accused of all sorts of 

 iniquities, more especially of causing a disease in horses by their bite, 

 and there are few parishes that have not, in former times, had their 

 " Shrew ash " as a charm against witchcraft. Perhaps they owe 

 their bad character to the circumstance that, although Cats will 

 readily kill a Shrew, they refuse to eat it, on account of its disagree- 

 able odour. 



The Hedgehogs (Ermaceus) are distinguished by having theii- bodies 

 covered more or less exclussively with spines instead of hairs. They 

 have the faculty of rolling themselves up into a ball, and thus pre- 

 senting only an array of prickles pointing in every direction. 



The Common Hedgehcg ' Erinaceus Europceim, is well known in the 

 rural districts of this couutrv. Slow of foot, it cannot flee from 





Fig. 476.— hedgehog. 



danger ; but in the sharp, hard, and tough prickles of its coat it is 

 endowed with a safeguard more secure and efficient than the teeth 

 and claws of the wild cat, or the fieetness of tlie hare. The Hedge- 

 hog is provided with powerful muscles, beneath the skin of the back, 

 whereby on the slightest alarm, it is able to roll itself up, so as to 

 enclose the head and limbs in the centre. The more forcibly these 

 muscles contract, the more rigidly do the spines project from every 



