THE HEDGEHOG KIND, 



376 



hedgehog kind ; but yet sufficiently different 

 from it, to constitute a different species. 

 Like the hedgehog they are covered with 

 prickles, though mixed in a greater propor- 

 tion with hair; but unlike that animal, they 

 do not defend themselves by rolling up in a 

 ball. Their wanting this last property is 

 alone sufficient to distinguish them from an 

 animal in which it makes the most striking 

 peculiarity: as also, that in the East Indies, 

 where only they are found, the hedgehog ex- 

 ists separately also: a manifest proof that this 

 animal is not a variety caused by the climate. 

 The tanrec is much less than the hedge- 

 hog," being about the si/e of a mole, and co- 

 vered with prickles, like that animal, except 

 that they are shorter and smaller. The len- 

 drac is still less than the former, and is de- 

 fended only with prickles upon the head, the 

 neck, and the shoulders; the rest being co- 

 vered with a coarse hair, resembling a hog's 

 bristles. These little animals, whose legs 

 are very short, move but slowly. They grunt 

 like a hog; and wallow, like it, in the mire. 

 They love to be near water, and spend more 

 of their time there, than upon laud. They 

 are chiefly in creeks and harbours of salt wa- 

 ter. They multiply in great numbers, make 

 themselves holes in the ground, and sleep 

 for several months. During this torpid state, 

 their hairs (and I should also suppose their 

 prickles) fall; and they are renewed upon 

 their revival. They are usually very fat; 

 and although their flesh be insipid, soft, and 

 stringy, yet the Indians find it to their taste, 

 and consider it as a very great delicacy. 



THE PORCUPINE 



THOSE arms which the hedgehog possesses 

 in miniature, the Porcupine has in a more 

 enlarged degree. The short prickles of the 

 hedgehog, are, in this animal, converted into 

 shafts. In the one, the spines are about an 

 inch long; in the other, a foot. The porcu- 

 pine is about two feet long, and fifteen inches 

 high. Like the hedgehog, it appears a mass 

 of misshapen flesh, covered with quills, from 

 ten to fourteen inches long, resembling the 



Buffon vol. xxv. p. 254. 



barrel of a goose-quill in thickness, but ta- 

 pering and sharp at both ends. These, whe- 

 ther considered separately or together, afford 

 sufficient subject to detain curiosity. Each 

 quill is thickest in the middle; and inserted 

 into the animal's skin, in the same manner as 

 feathers are found to grow upon birds. It is 

 within-side spongy, like the top of a goose- 

 quill; and of different colours, 'being white 

 and black alternately, from one end to the 

 other. The biggest are often found fifteen 

 inches long, and a quarter of an inch in dia- 

 meter; extremely sharp, and capable of in- 

 flicting a mortal wound. They seem harder 

 than common quills, being difficult to be cut, 

 and solid at that end which is not fixed in 

 the skin. If we examine them in common, 

 as they grow upon the animal, they appear 

 of two kinds; the one such as I have already 

 described ; the other, long, flexible, and slen- 

 der, growing here and there among the for- 

 mer. There is still another sort of quills, 

 that grow near the tail, white and transparent, 

 like the writing quills, and that seem to be 

 cut short at the end. AH these quills, of 

 whatever kind, incline backwards, like the 

 bristles of a hog; but when the animal is ir- 

 ritated, they rise, and stand upright, as bris- 

 tles are seen to do. 



Such is the formation of this quadruped, 

 in those parts in which it differs from most 

 others; as to the rest of its figure, the muz- 

 zle bears some resemblance to that of a hare, 

 but black ; the legs are very short, and the 

 feet have five toes, both before and behind; 

 and these, as well as the belly, the head, and 

 all other parts of the body, are covered with 

 a sort of short hair, lihe prickles, there being 

 no part, except the ears and the sole of the 

 foot, that is free from them : the ears are thinly 

 covered with very fine hair; and are in shape 

 like those of mankind : the eyes are small, 

 like those of a hog, being only one-third of 

 an inch from one corner to the other. After 

 the skin is taken off, there appears a kind of 

 paps on those parts of the body from whence 

 the large quills proceed; these are about the 

 size of a small pea, each answering to as many 

 holes which appear on the outward surface 

 of the skin, and which are about half an inch 

 deep, like as many hollow pipes, wherein the 

 quills are fixed, as in so many sheaths. 



