28 



hedgehog, like other insectivora, is supplied with nnmerous sharf and stroog 

 teeth, 36 in number, which are well adapted for crunching the hard and horny 

 elytra of beetles, and also for crushing the bones of mice and snakes which the 

 hedgehog eats as well as insects. The front or incisor teeth of the hedgehog 

 resemble those of the bats in the peculiar gap that exists between the front 

 teeth of the upper jaw, which are six in number ; the incisor teeth of the lower 

 jaw project like the shrews — nearly horizontaly. The hedgehog has five toes on 

 each foot, all of which are separate. The snout is not so prolonged as the mole's 

 or the shrew's, but still is a flexible and sensitive organ of touch as well as of 

 emell. But the leading peculiarity of the hedgehog which would serve easily 

 to distinguish it from all other animals, except perhaps the porcupine, is its 

 annoirr of spines. These spines are about an inch long and very sharp at the 

 point, and are held firmly in their place by a kind of head underneath the skin, 

 and the animal has the power by means of an unusual development of a muscle 

 called the panniculus-carnosus, which runs all over the back and sides, to roll 

 itself completely up into a ball, and in so doing causes the spines to stand up 

 erect and point out like a number of bayonets in every direction. So roUed up 

 and protected there is hardly any animal which dares to attack the hedgehog ; 

 this power of rolling itself into a ball, combined with the elasticity of the spines' 

 enables the hedgehog to let itself drop from great heights without sustaining 

 any Injury. The hedgehog is nocturnal in its habits, but frequently may be seen 

 in daylight. 



Although not a fossorial animal, like the mole or the shrew, yet it has 

 considerable power of digging in the ground after insect larvae. Its sense of 

 smell is well developed. 



The home of the hedgehog is usually some hole in an old rotten tree, or 

 among old buildings or walls. They produce three or four young at a birth 

 about the month of May. The young are born blind, and also have their ears 

 closed. The quills are at first soft and white. 



Hedgehogs are hibernating animals, and spend the winter for the most 

 part in a state of sleep. They can, however, be easily roused out of that con- 

 dition. Like other animals in that condition their respiratoiy function seems to 

 be almost inactive. 



Like most of the other animals of this order, the hedgehog has has attributed 

 to it mischievous propensities, amongst the principal of which is the charge of 

 sucking cow's milk. 



This idea has probably arisen from the fact that the hedgehog has been occa- 

 sionally observed to lick up the milk which had dropped from a cow before 

 it was milked. 



