The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District. 99 
Order INSECTIVORA., 
ERINACEUS EUROPZUS Z. HEDGEHOG. 
In spite of the persistent persecution to which it is 
subjected by gamekeepers in consequence of the occasional 
plunder of a pheasant’s or a partridge’s nest, this interesting 
animal is still common in all but the most unsuitable 
localities. Many of them come annually under my own 
notice between April and October—especially in those years 
when I happen to be much about the woods and hedgerows 
at night after moths. Some idea of their numbers may be 
gathered from the fact that a keeper on a small property a 
few miles south of Edinburgh kills between twenty and 
thirty annually. I have frequently kept Hedgehogs in 
confinement, but cannot say that they have always proved 
“interesting pets.” The facility and speed with which they 
follow up the track of a beetle shows that they possess a 
very keen scent. Pale or albino examples occur at rare 
intervals—two (adult and young) belonging to the Earl of 
Haddington were exhibited at a meeting of the Royal 
Physical Society on 17th February 1885. 
Pennant, in Lightfoot’s “ Flora Scotica,” published in 1792 
(vol. i. p. 13), says of the Hedgehog—*“ not found beyond the 
Tay, perhaps not beyond the Forth;” but the accuracy of 
this statement may well be questioned. Sibbald includes the 
“ Frinaceus” in his “ Historia Animalium in Scotia” (1684), 
but the few remarks he makes concerning it have reference 
entirely to its habits and uses. We may fairly assume, 
however, that had it then been unknown, or even very rare 
in Fife—a county whose animals were probably better known 
to him than those of any other part of Scotland—he would 
have made some allusion to the fact. Only six years after 
the publication of Lightfoot’s work, the “Urchin” was included 
without comment in an enumeration of animals found in the 
parish of Dowally, near Dunkeld (“ Old Statistical Account 
of Scotland,” vol. xx., p. 472). It is also mentioned in the 
Account of the parish of Tillicoultry, written in 1795 
(op. cit., vol. xv., p. 200). Don, in his “ List of Forfarshire 
Animals,” published in 1813 (“ Headrick’s Agriculture of the 
