HEDGEHOG. 103 



DEPRIVED by its structure of all means of attacking 

 its enemies, of defending itself by force, or of seeking 

 safety in flight, this harmless animal is yet endowed with 

 a safeguard more secure and effectual than the teeth and 

 claws of the Wild Cat, or the fleetness of the Hare. 

 Its close covering of sharp spines, which are hard with- 

 out brittleness, sufficiently elastic to bear great violence 

 without breaking, and fixed with astonishing firmness in 

 the tough leathery skin, forms not only a solid shield 

 to protect it from the effect of blows or falls, but a 

 shirt of prickly mail sufficiently sharp and annoying to 

 deter all but a few thoroughbred Dogs from venturing 

 to attack it. Immediately that it is touched, or that it 

 sees danger approaching, it rolls itself up into a compact 

 round ball, by the contraction of the powerful muscles 

 which cover the body immediately under the skin, and 

 presents this impenetrable panoply, beset by innumerable 

 spines standing out in every direction; the more it is 

 irritated or alarmed, the more firmly it contracts, and 

 the more strongly and stiffly the spines are set ; and its 

 appearance at such times did not escape the eye of 

 Shakspeare, and was not forgotten when he put the 

 following into the mouth of Caliban : 



' ' Then like hedgehogs which 

 Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount 

 Their pricks at my foot-fall." 



The strength and elasticity of this covering is such, 

 that we have repeatedly seen a domesticated Hedgehog 

 run towards the precipitous wall of an area, and, without 

 hesitation, without a moment's pause of preparation, 

 throw itself off, and contracting at the same instant into 

 a ball, in which condition it reached the ground from a 

 height of twelve or fourteen feet : after a few moments it 

 would unfold itself and run off unhurt. 



