THE HEDGEHOG. 



PLATE XXXIII. 



Class Mammalia. Order Rodentia : gnawers. Genus 



Hystrix. Species' Cristata, prehensiles and dorsata. 



THE name of this animal leads us into an error, and in- 

 duces many to imagine, that it is only a hog covered with 

 quills, when, in fact, it only resembles that animal by its 

 grunting. In every other respect, it differs from the hog as 

 much as any other animal, as well in outward appearance as 

 in the interior conformation. Instead of a long head and ears-, 

 armed with tusks, and terminated with a snout ; instead of a 

 cloven foot, furnished with hoofs, like the hog, the Porcupine 

 has a short head, like that of the beaver, with two large in- 

 cisive teeth in the fore part of each jaw ; no tusks, or canine 

 teeth : the muzzle is divided like that of the hare ; the ears 

 are round and flat, and the feet armed with nails ; instead of 

 a large stomach with an appendage in form of a caul, the 

 purcupine has only a single stomach, with the large coecum 

 gut. By all these marks, as well as by its short tail, its long 

 whiskers, and its divided lip, it partakes more of the hare, or 

 beaver kind, than that of the hog. 



Animals of the Hedgehog kind require but very little accu- 

 racy to distinguish them from all others. That hair which 

 serves the generality of quadrupeds for warmth and ornament, 

 is partly wanting in these ; while its place is supplied by sharp 

 spines or prickles, that serve for their defence. This general 

 characteristic, therefore, makes a much more obvious distinc- 

 tion than any that can be taken from their teeth or their 

 claws. Nature, by this extraordinary peculiarity, seems to 

 have separated them in a very distinguished manner ; so that, 

 instead of classing the Hedgehog among the moles, or the 

 porcupine with the hare, as some have done, it is much more 

 natural and obvious to place them, and others approaching 



Yol. ii. 17 



