NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 77 



and each of the backbones fits on to its neighbour by a wonderful 

 joint, which keeps the chain of bones quite stiff when the 

 animal is walking, but enables him to coil up into a ball 

 at the slightest provocation. I find that the hedgehog has a 

 clavicle, or collar-bone, evidently for the purpose of using his 

 fore-paws for digging. His digging claws are also peculiar, and 

 when curved together assume a shape very like that of the ant- 

 eater, the fellow who pulls down the ants' nests with his tre- 

 mendous claws. 



Being anxious to settle the point, mentioned by White, as to 

 whether the spines of the hedgehog at birth are soft, I obtained 

 a hedgehog from my brother-in-law, the Eev. H. Gordon, 

 Harting Rectory, Petersfield. To my great delight I one morn- 

 ing found, among the straw in the box, one baby hedgehog just 

 born. There had been probably a large family born, but the 

 mother had eaten them all but this one. Here is a life-sized 



BABY HKDCEHOd L1KK S1ZK. 



picture of him. White was quite correct. The spines were soft 

 and flexible at the birth of the little beast; they were little 

 dumpy spikes, much resembling the incipient feathers of a 

 young bird. Even in the few hours the hedgehog lived these 

 bristles grew considerably. I have made a cast of him, and 

 coloured it to life. 



Few people, perhaps, have heard the cry of a hedgehog when 

 caught in a steel-trap, and few would imagine that such a cry 

 of pain and agony, somewhat resembling that of a child or u 

 hare, could be produced by it. The flesh of the hedgehog is said 

 to resemble chicken, and is eaten in large quantities by gipsies. 



Hedgehogs are popularly said to be able to resist the effects 

 of prussic acid, arsenic, aconite, and wourali. When studying 

 chemistry at Giessen with Professor Liebig I tried prussic 

 acid, and it was fatal to the poor hedgehog. I have also tried 

 hedgehogs with vipers. The viper struck the hedgehog two or 

 three times in the face, where there are no bristles ; the blows 

 were well aimed, and meant to do business, as at that moment 



