THE HEDGEHOG 



227 



AN OLD IIKDGKIIOG. 



food is catholic, the only distinct prefer- 

 ence they display being for something 

 " crunchable." 



There can be little doubt, however, 

 that the tendency to hibernation, which 

 is undoubtedly marked in the Hedge- 

 hog and Shrew Mice, and which is 

 probable in the Mole, points to an 

 early stage at which hibernation was 

 a provision of Nature to prevent these 

 small beasties dying of starvation in the 

 winter. 



There are certain outward features which 

 are characteristic of all five of our British 

 Insectivora. They are all small animals 

 (it may be mentioned that the largest 

 insectivorous animal known, the Tenrec, 

 is less than two feet long, but atones 

 for this comparative insignificance by 

 usually producing about twenty young 

 at a birth) ; they are all, under normal 

 conditions, silent animals ; the}' all have 

 long pig-like snouts, and they all ha\'e 

 five toes (the primitive number) on each 

 of their four feet. They are plantigrade, 

 and their bodies are slung low between 

 their legs, which results, in the Shrew Mice, 

 in a squirming method of progression, and. 

 in the Hedgehog, in an ungainly waddle. 



during which his body zigzags head to 

 tail, and he seems at every other step 

 to leave one leg behind him. Neither 

 Hedgehogs nor Moles seem able to sit 

 back on their haunches, but Shrew Mice 

 not infrequently rely on their hind 

 feet alone, and can sit, and even run 

 a few steps, with their fore-feet unsup- 

 ported. 



The outward appearance of the Hedge- 

 hog is probably familiar to most people. 

 His back and sides are thickly studded 

 with dark-banded, sharp-pointefl, highly 

 elastic quills. These number about 270 

 to the square inch, and the sum-total of 

 them, taking an average specimen and 

 regarding him as a sphere, works out at 

 about 16,000. Each quill is spindle- 

 shaped with a decided bend at the in- 

 sertion of the root, and consists of a 

 pith, an inner, and an outer shell. The 

 outer shell is furrowed throughout its 

 length, while a cross section shows that 

 the inner shell (a thickening of which 

 gives hardness to the tip) projects into 

 the body of the quill in a series of ridges 

 which correspond to the furrows without. 

 The pith is traversed by a delicate net- 



