7g4 Mr. E. I. Pocock on Warning Characteristics 



for, wlien moving about by night, it does advertise its pre- 

 sence by sounds, making a ftuious sniffing with its nostrils 

 and also rustling among the leaves and herbage in a way 

 that no other small animal could do without great unwisdom. 

 One can easily track hedgehogs, I think from a distance of 

 forty yards, by the. perpetual noise they thus keep up, which 

 tells us both where and what they are"*. 



As Major Barrett-Hamilton has pointed out, many exotic 

 hedgehogs, inhabiting areas, be it noted, where possible 

 enemies are more numerous and varied than in Britain, are 

 whiter than English examples. Apart from the spines the 

 whiteness is particularly manifest over the forehead and 

 sides of the head, which are exposed to view when the 

 animal is ])rowling about on the feed with the head thrust 

 forward. Egyptian and South African hedgehogs [E. cethio- 

 jyicus and E. frontalis) are good instances of this. I have 

 elsewhere t published a considerable amount of evidence 

 supporting the theory that white on the top of the head or 

 back in nocturnal animals makes them conspicuous at night 

 against dark ground. 



It is periiaps necessary to point out that the positive 

 evidence supplied by ]\lr. Moffat of the power of the hedge- 

 hog to emit an objectionable scent outweighs all the negative 

 evidence that may be brought forward of their being 

 innocuous to human nostrils. No one probably will claim 

 that the faculty in the case cited was individual. If one 

 specimen had the power, which seems indisjnitable, then all 

 examples of the species, if not of tlie genus, have it. In all 

 the stinking mammals that have come under my notice, the 

 reluctance to make use of their scent-glands, unless aggres- 

 sively interfered with, is very striking. Skunks, zorillas, 

 and ratels can be quite safely exhibited in cages. Now and 

 again ne^ly arrived specimens may make things unpleasant 

 for the keeper for a short time, but they soon become 

 accustomed to people and show themselves to be docile in 

 disposition. Even such powerful beasts as ratels are never 

 aggressive or frightened and are often easily tamed; and 

 zorillas are known to be kept as pets in South Africa for their 

 vermin-destroying propensities. 



Critics of the claim that hedgehogs belong to the category 

 of advertising mammals will probably point out that eagle- 

 owls, badgers, and foxes, sometimes at all events, eat them 



* Mr. Moffat's experiences are quoted and the aposematic attributes of 

 hedgehogs in general are discussed in Major Barrett-Hamilton's 

 'A History of British Mammals,' pt. vii. p. 59, June 1911. 



t P. Z. S. 1908, pp. 944-959. 



