% 2DO FAMILY ERIXACKAIU: ; IIKDGKIIOr.S. 



astonishing firmness in the tou^h. leathery skin, forms not only 

 a <olid shield to protect it from the effect of blows or falls. hut 

 ;i shirt of prickly mail sufficiently sharp and annoying to deter 

 all but a few thorough-bred Do^, or a half-starved Fox. from 

 v< muring to attack it. Immediately that it is touched, or that 

 it r-ees any danger approaching, it rolls itself up into a compact 

 round bail, and presents this impenetrable, panoply, beset bv 

 innumerable spines standing out iu every direction ; and the 

 more it is irritated or alarmed, the more firmlv it contracts, and 

 the more strongly and stiffly the spines are set. The strength 

 and elasticity of this covering is such, that I have repeatedly 

 seen a domesticated Hedgehog in my own possession run towards 

 the precipitous walls of an area. and. without hesitation, without 

 a moment's pause of preparation, throw itself off. con tract in _: 

 at tke same time into a ball, in which condition it reached the 

 ground from a height of 1:2 or 1-1 feet ; after a few moments it 

 would unfold itself and run off unhurt." The food of the Ilcd^e- 

 ho^ in its n.itural *tate consists of insects, sluus, fro^s. toads. 

 mice, and even snakes, which last it destroys with j_reat 

 dexterity; it also devours eg^s. young inklings, and various 

 kinds of vegetable matter, f .r some of which it will bore with 

 its IOIIL: snout. Its fondness fur insects occasions it to be kept in 

 many houses in London, for the purpose of ridding the kitchens 

 o| the innumerable hosts of cockroaches, by \\hich thev are 

 infested. It is easily rendered familiar, hut does not manifest 

 any peculiar decree of intelligence. The liybernation of the 

 I Icdi.'.ehou- is verv complete ; the whole winter bein^ passed by 

 it in a stale (.f complete torpidity. It makes its retreat in banks, 

 under the hollow routs of trees, in holes, or other sheltered and 



dri< d leave-, and moss, with which it covers itself very closclv. 

 i!i' Tmr> <v of Madai:a-car and the Mauritius closely resemble 

 the Hedgehog in their general characters; but differ in their 

 dentition, as al-o m th-' feebleiie.-s of their spines, and in the less 

 complete power of rolling themselves into a ball. Their habits 

 of the common Hed^eho^ ; but thev are 

 temperature is extremely hi^h. They 



