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HKFKLE 



619 



Coinmoii Hedgehog 

 ( Erinaceua europceun ). 



the Kniopeaii representative of the 

 genus Krinaceus, i lie i \ pc <>i tin- tamily Erinaceidu*, 

 order In-Tti\oia (c|.v.). The cliiri" MMMteriltlei 

 of tin- ^emis are : body capable of being rolled up 

 into ;i kill by tin- art ion of a powerful muscle 

 ari-ing from the head and neck on either wide, and 

 forming a loop around tlio posterior extremity ; 

 .istinrt : teeth, three incisors on each side in 

 -ither jaw, the central pair long and prominent, 

 molars, seven on cadi side above, live below, with 

 rounded t nhereles ; /ygoinatic arch of the skull 

 Complete: legs short, with five toes on each foot; 

 tin- two le" hones ankylosed ; tail short; back 

 covered with spines, the remainder of the body 

 \ iili hairs and bristles. 



There are fourteen species, none of which occur 



in the New 

 World or 

 Australia. 

 The Common 

 Hedgehog 

 ( Erinaceus 

 europceus ) 

 has a sharp- 

 ly pointed 

 muzzle and 

 ears less than 

 half the 

 length of the 

 head. The 

 eyes are small 

 and black. 

 The animal 

 is at most 

 about a foot 

 long, and some six inches high. The spines which 

 cover its back attain a maximum length of about 

 an inch ; they are sharply pointed and remarkably 

 linn and elastic, so much so that they constitute 

 a cushion upon which the animal will allow him- 

 self to fall from a considerable height with im- 

 punity. They are finely grooved along the sides, 

 and have a pin-head-like root so attached to the 

 muscle of the back that when the latter contracts 

 they radiate outwards in all directions. 



The animal eats small vertebrates, such as mice, 

 young birds, and frogs, insects, worms, and some- 

 times vegetable matters. It is very useful in a 

 garden or in a house infested by cockroaches. It 

 has even been known to attack and devour snakes, 

 seeming in have some special power of resisting not 

 only the poison of the viper, but also other noxious 

 sulwtances. It is nocturnal in its habits, and 

 hibernates throughout the winter, and, according 

 to the (Jypsics, with whom it is a special delicacy, 

 it does store up birds, mice, crab-apples, &c. It 

 inhabits hollows of trees or crevices in the rocks, 

 but in default of these will excavate itself a burrow. 

 The pairing season is from the end of March to 

 the beginning of June ; and the period of gestation 

 is seven weeks. Three to six (rarely eight) young^ 

 are born at once ; they have both the eyes and 

 ears closet!. The spines are at first quite white and 

 soft, and since they point backwards and the young 

 are l>orn head first there is no risk of injury to the 

 mother during parturition. 



Its area of distribution extends over the whole of 

 temperate Europe and the greater part of Asia 

 north of the Himalayas. Fossil heogehogs have 

 been found in the Tertiary formations. 



Hedgehog Plant, a name given to those 

 species of medick ( Medicago ) which have the pods 

 spirally twisted and rolled up into a ball beset with 

 spines. They are particularly plentiful on sandy 

 grounds near the sea in England, and in some parts 

 of South America ; and their pods are too plentiful 

 in the South American wool imported into Britain. 

 They atl'ord excellent food for sheep and cattle. 



Hedge-mustard (Sinymbrium), a genun of 

 plants of the natural order Crucifenr, annual or 

 rarely perennial herbs, with very various foliage, 

 small yellow or white flowers, and a long roundi-li 

 or six-an-ded pod (iliqiie). Several specie* are 

 natives of Hritain, of which one, the Common 

 Hedge mustard (,V. offidnute), was once employed 

 in medicine for catarrhs arid other ailments. It in 

 an annual plant, plentiful in waste places and by 

 waysides, sometimes two feet high, branched, with 

 runcinate or deeply-lot>ed leaves, stem, and leaves 

 hairy. 



Hedge-nettle. See STACHYS. 



Hedge-sparrow (Accentor modularit) is 

 really a small IS uropean Warbler (q.v.) resembling 

 a sparrow in colouring. 



Hedjaz. See ARABIA. 



Hedjrah. See HEGIRA. 



Hedley, WILLIAM (1779-1843), born at New- 

 burn near Newcastle, the improver of Trevithick's 

 locomotive. See RAILWAYS. 



Hedonism. See ETHICS. 



Heem, JAN DAVIDSZ VAN, the greatest Dutch 

 painter of 'still life,' was born at Utrecht in 1606. 

 In 1635 he enrolled himself in the Antwerp guild of 

 painters ; and in that city he died in 1683 or 1684. 

 "eem's pictures represent for the most part fruits 



id flowers, insect* and creeping things, and drink- 



H 



and 



ing cups, bottles, &c. Masterpieces by his hand are 

 hung in the galleries of Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, 

 Munich, St Petersburg, and other places. His 

 drawing and colouring are exquisite, and his use of 

 chiaroscuro unsurpassable. 



Heeren, ARNOLD HERMANN LUDWIG, German 

 historian, was born 25th October 1760, at Arbergen, 

 near Bremen. He first made himself known by an 

 edition of Menander's De Encomiis (1785), and in 

 1787 was appointed professor of Philosophy, and in 

 1801 professor of History, at Gottiugen. He 

 married in 1797 a daughter of Heyne, and died 7th 

 March 1842. The striking feature about his teach- 

 ing and writing was that he studied the peoples of 

 classic antiquity from the modern standpoint, as 

 the title of his principal work shows Ideen uber 

 Politik, den Verkehr mnl <lrn Handel der vornehmsteti 

 Volker der alien Welt (1793-96; 4th ed. 1824-26; 

 Eng. trans. 1833). Besides this he wrote Geschichte 

 des Studiums der clas&ischen Literatur sett dem 

 Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften (2 vols. 1797- 

 1802 ), Geschichte der Stouten des Alterthums ( 1799 ; 

 5th ed. 1828; .Eng. trans. 1840), and Geschichte des 

 europaischen Ktaatensystems itnd seiner Colonirn 

 (1800; 5th ed. 1830; Eng. trans. 1834), which 

 abounded in new views and acute expositions. His 

 Untersuchwngen uber die Kreuzziige won a prize 

 offered by the National Institute of Fiance. His 

 Kleine historische Schriften (3 vols. 1803-8) con tain 

 some very interesting treatises and a biography 

 of Heyne! In 1821-26 he published an edition of 

 all his* historical works in 15 vols. 



Hefele, KARL JOSKPH vox, an eminent Cath- 

 olic church historian, was lorn at Unterkochen in 

 Wurtemberg, 15th March 1809. He studied at 

 Tubingen, and became in 1836 prinit-dwut, and 

 in 1840 professor of Church History and Christian 

 Archii'ologv, in the Catholic theological faculty 

 of that university. He showed himself a danger- 

 ous enemy to the dogma of papal infallibility even 

 after his consecration as Bishop of Hottenburg 

 in 1869, by his weighty contributions to the 

 Honorius controversy : tionoritis und dot scchut* 

 allgemeine Konzil (Tub. 1870), and Causa Honorii 

 i,n lt- (Naples, 1870). But after his return from 

 Home, in a pastoral epistle in 1871 he gave in his 

 adhesion to the dogma, with the explanation that 

 the infallibility of the pope, as well as that of the 



