the Common Hedgehog. 361 



I find that apparently the coloration tends to become lighter 

 as the animal ranges southward, until Spanish specimens are 

 almost white. This is effected bj a lightening not only of 

 the hairs but also of the spines. These appear to become 

 whiter along their whole length, so that while in one spine 

 the dirtj is represented by a purer white and the brown band 

 has little intensity, in anotiier the brown band may have 

 entirely disappeared and the colour is white throughout the 

 whole length of the spine. In its extreme form this becomes 

 a very well-marked subspecies, which I accordingly here take 

 the opportunity to describe. 



Another phase of the animal is represented in Italy, where, 

 as regards colour, the hedgehogs are slightly paler than 

 those of Western Europe. In Sicily there is a subspecies of 

 which the longer, thicker bristles have broader white and more 

 strongly contrasted deeper black annulations. The Roumanian 

 hedgehogs are distinguishable by the fact that the dirty-white 

 hairs of the under surface are arranged in a detined breast-spot, 

 thus approximating (in this respect only) very closely to E. con- 

 color, Martin, of which the Museum possesses the type specimen 

 from Trebizond. In other respects the type of E. e. concolor 

 is of highly remarkable appearance, and differs in its dark 

 burnt-umber coloration from specimens from Mount Lebanon, 

 which, although similar to E. e. concolor in size and propor- 

 tions, possess the white tips to the spines which characterize 

 our own hedgehog. I suspect, however, that the colour of 

 the former is due to the process of preservation to which it 

 was subjected, and hence I refer the Lebanon specimens to 

 E. e. concolor. Lastly, two specimens from Pekin and Chefoo 

 show that there occurs at the extreme eastern limit of the 

 great Pala^arctic Region a hedgehog which, although paler, is 

 yet not very widely different from our own. 



One or two points of general interest deserve a brief notice 

 before I pass on to enumerate the various subspecies ; and, 

 firstly, it is interesting to find Eastern European mammals 

 approaching or intergrading with those of Western Asia. 

 Several similar instances have recentlv been brought before 

 our notice. Thus we have Ovis ophion urmiana * of the 

 islands of Lake Lrrai, intermediate between 0. ophion of 

 Cyprus and 0. orientalisoi Asia ; Microtus Musi'gnani illyricus^ 

 of Bosnia, intermediate between ^J. Musi'gnani of Spain and 

 3i. joersiCiis of Kurdistan and Persia; Meles nieles mediter- 

 raneus J of Crete, intermediate between 31. m. typicus of 



» A. Gunther, Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. toI. sxvii. p. 374. 



t Barrett-Hamilton. Ann. & Mas. Nat. Hist. March 1899, p. 223: 



X Id, op. ctt. Nov. 1899, p. 383. " 



