718 



HEDGEHOG. 



lips, the eyes, and the under sides of the feet are, 

 however, always naked ; and so is the tail and the 

 mammae of the female, of which there are five pairs. 

 In the eyes there is a third eyelid, which can be pro- 

 duced so as to cover the eye, as in the cat. The 

 eye and optic nerve are both very small, and there- 

 fore we may conclude that the sight of these animals 

 is very weak. Hedgehogs which have been kept in 

 a state of confinement, (for they are very easily tamed, 

 and when so, remarkably gentle) have given abundant 

 proofs of this, by showing little excitement when ob- 

 jects of sight approach them. Their scent appears, 

 on the other hand, to bo very acute, for they keep 

 constantly turning up their noses, moving the cartila- 

 ginous appendage, and apparently snuffing the wind 

 in the same manner as pigs do. They swim much 

 faster than they walk on the ground. Some tame 

 ones have been brought to subsist wholly on milk and 

 vegetable matter ; but it is probable that, in a state 

 of nature, they are very carnivorous. Some have 

 alleged that they occasionally kill rabbits for the 

 purpose of eating them, but, though a rabbit is more 

 easily killed than almost any animal, this is somewhat 

 doubtful. It is certain, however, that they eat very 

 greedily the carrion of rabbits, hares, dogs, and other 

 anirnuls ; and it is said that they contrive to break 

 open the skull and eat the brain of the animal before 

 they touch the flesh ; and this is physiologically con- 

 sidered as being the most carnivorous trait in the 

 character of any animal whatever. 



They bring forth about the end of spring, and the 

 young vary from three to seven. They are white at 

 their birth, and the points of the spines are rarely 

 perceptible through the cuticle. Hedgehogs are 

 frequently introduced into houses for the purpose of 

 expelling the blattce, or cockroaches, which they pur- 

 sue and devour with great eagerness. The Calmuc 

 Tartars keep them in their huts in place of cats. 

 Some years ago, a man exhibited in the Champs 

 Elysees, at Paris, a large boxful of hedgehogs, which 

 not only unrolled themselves, but allowed themselves 

 to be handled and teased at his orders. There are 

 other instances recorded of individuals of this species 

 having been completely domesticated. The skin of 

 the hedgehog was used" by the ancients as a clothes- 

 brush ; and it is applied in some countries to the muz- 

 zle of calves which are to be weaned. Though the 

 flesh of this animal is generally despised as food, the 

 Spaniards are said to value it very much in Lent.- 



The hedgehog, considered altogether, is one of the 

 most singular animals found in European countries. 

 It is met with only in climates which are compara- 

 tively temperate, not occurring in high latitudes or at 

 a great elevation upon the mountains ; and even in 

 those rich parts which constitute its proper localities, 

 it retires under ground in the winter. Its temperature 

 is indeed low, and its circulation sluggish at all 

 seasons of the year, and it seems equally incapable 

 of bearing extremes of heat, light, and cold, without 

 passing into a dormant state. Though it is generally 

 stated to extend into Asia, and even into the north 

 of Africa, those statements are at best doubtful ; 

 and it is probablethat the spiny animalsof insectivorous 

 habits which are found there are different species, or at 

 all events different varieties, from onr hedgehogs. 



THE LONG-EAUED HEDGEHOG (E. auritus). This 

 species, in all its localities, is smaller than the Euro- 

 pean hedgehog ; and it is at once distinguished from 

 that by longitudinal furrows in the spines, which are 



channelled longitudinally, and have the margins of 

 the channels marked with little knots or tubercles. 

 These spines are not either so long or so formidable 

 as those of the European hedgehog ; and therefore 

 they form a much less complete defence to the ani- 

 mal. They are further distinguished by the shortness 

 of their upper incisive teeth, and the length of their 

 lower ones ; by a tuft of long soft hair at the angle 

 of the gape ; and, above all, the greater length of their 

 eats, from which they receive their names. The 

 upper part of the body is covered with slender 

 brown spines, with a whitish ring at their base, and a 

 yellowish one at the point. They are not joined in 

 tufts or shafts at their extremity to the root, but sepa- 

 rated singly, and are smoothed back when the animal 

 is in a state of repose. The nostrils are denticulated 

 like the crest of a cock. The limbs are longer and 

 more slender than those of our European hedgehog. 

 The tail is conical shaped, almost naked, and rather 

 shorter than the common species, and the hair is 

 in general much finer ; in the limbs and belly it forms 

 a fine whitish hair ; the muzzle is furnished with four 

 rows of whiskers ; the tail is of a yellowish white 

 colour ; the iris of the eye bluish. The female has 

 usually two litters in the year, and brings forth from 

 six to seven at a birth. It hybernates in holes a few 

 inches below the surface of the ground. It feeds on 

 insects, and can eat with impunity cantharides, and 

 others which are so acrid and poisonous in their 

 nature as that they blister the skin of the human body, 

 and are attended with very serious effects "if admini- 

 stered inwardly, unless in the most minute doses imagi- 

 nable ; and they also occasion the greatest uneasiness 

 and pain to digitigrade mammalia, if these happen to 

 swallow them. This is a singular distinction between 

 the stomachs of at least some of the insectivorous 

 carnassiers and of those which are more decidedly 

 carnivorous. It has been said that bears can take 

 with impunity doses of prussic acid which would be 

 sufficient to kill a whole den of lions ; and it is cer- 

 tain that even if one of those poisonous beetles upon 

 which the hedgehogs feed habitually were to be swal- 

 lowed by a strong dog, it would throw him into con- 

 vulsions. This is perhaps one of the most wonderful 

 instances which we have of the adaptation of animals 

 to the nature of their food ; and it is not wholly con- 

 fined to the insectivorous and other plantigrade car- 

 nassiers, but is found to a certain extent in hogs, and 

 may exist also in other pachydermata. Even among 

 ruminant animals there are remarkable differences in 

 this respect, for goats can eat plants which would 

 produce the rot in sheep, and be of the most serious 

 injury to oxen. This, however, is a department of 

 animal physiology which is very obscure in itself, and 

 has been very little studied ; but it is at the same 

 time one well deserving the attention of physiologists. 

 In the case of the hedgehog, the powers of the sto- 

 mach are as well adapted as its teeth for insect food, 

 and for such insects even as are destructive to others 

 differently adapted ; if it were otherwise, its mental 

 impulse and its physical capacities would frequently 

 induce its destruction. This species closely resembles 

 the European one in all its manners and habits ; and 

 towards the close of autumn it gets remarkably fat. 



It is probable that those who have described the 

 common hedgehog as being found out of Europe have 

 confounded it with this species. On the other hand, 

 it does not appear that this one has ever occurred in 

 Europe, or in Africa, except in those parts which are 



