amonjsl Instc/icoroiis onil Ciinn'corous Mammals. 755 



ainl tiuit some do^s can be trained to kill tlioin. This is, of 

 course, not disputed. But if this fact be used as an argument 

 against the theory of advertisement, it must logically also 

 be used as evidence against the view that the animal's spinc- 

 annature is protective. No one, however, will, I imagine, 

 make such a claim. We know, in fact, that the spines are 

 protective by the way they baffle the efforts of any ordinary 

 dog to kill this insectivore; and rats that I have more than 

 once seen pitted against hedgehogs in a cage iiad no chance, 

 if the hedgehogs wished to fight; and although the rodents 

 bravely attempted to defend themselves at first, they soon 

 desisted and directed all their efforts (o escape. I have also 

 seen rats on the floor of a room run after hedgehogs and dart 

 at their hind-quarters to bite them ; but the attem})t was 

 never, within my experience, repeated more than once or 

 twice *. 



I suspect that badgers and foxes do not eat hedgeliogs 

 nnless pressed by hunger; as I also suspect that lions, tigers, 

 leopards, and pumas leave the porcui)ines of their respective 

 countries alone, unless other game is scarce or, for any 

 reason, un])rocurable. But even if the insectivore and 

 rodent specified are habitually eaten by the carnivora men- 

 tioned, there is no reason to suppose that the former are not 

 protected from smaller predaceous animals ; and in tho 

 category of possible enemies, reptiles and birds must be 

 reckoned as well as mammals. 



Belonging to the same family as the hedgehogs, but devoid 

 of sj)ine-armature, is the Oriental genus Gymnura, There 

 is abundance of evidence, in my oj)inion, that this animal is 

 warningly or conspicuously coloured. The prevailing colour 

 of the head, neck, the fore part of the back, and of the 

 shoulders is white, relieved by a black stripe over the eye, 

 while the rest of the body and the limbs are mostly black. 

 Entirely white individuals are, moreover, not infrequently 

 met with. Since the animal is nocturnal, terrestrial, and an 

 inhabitant of well-wooded localities, it can hardly be doubted 

 that its whiteness makes it conspicuous after dark upon the 

 dark soil. That Gymnura raffiesi possesses malodorous scent- 

 glands has been known for very many years. According to 

 Blanford, it '* has a peculiar offensive smell .... described 

 .... by Mr. Davison as resembling Irish stew that has gone 

 bad." In the ' Royal Natural History ' the smell is described 

 as peculiarly disagreeable and of a somewhat oniony or 



* In the * Field ' for Oct. 29, 1911, there is, however, an instance quoted 

 of a brown rat killing a hedgehog. 



