Prof. K. Jji)\\\\\)ovg on Eastern lledgelioj^. ^21 



tliat this group may be regarded by otlier authors as a real 

 genus. It is evident from his words that Suiidevall con- 

 sidered auritus iia the type of tlie Ericius group, and if tliis 

 one is taken as a genus or a subgenus this name must be 

 •ised for the same. The other species, which Sundevall 

 enumerates as belonging to the same, are platyotiHy Sundevall, 

 (Pyy/jtius, Geoft'r., /i>/poine/as, Brandt, coUurLf, Gray, 

 spatangus, Bennett, and i/auricus, Sundevall. 



When accepting Heiniechinns, Fitzinger, 180G, as a genus 

 among the hedgeliogs, Satunin and others have also 

 considered auritus as the type for the same, although, as 

 Thomas in liis recent review (Ann. & jNIag. N. H. ser. 9, 

 vol. i. 1918) points out, this name "is not included in 

 Fitzinger's original paper." Thomas gains, however, the 

 same result by selecting platijotis^ Sundevall, as type for 

 Hemiec/iinus, because it is found in Fitzinger's list, and by 

 synonymizing in agreement with Anderson platyotis and 

 auritus. As Sundevall already in 1841 propf)se(l the name 

 Ericius for that group of hedgehogs to which auritus and 

 platyotis belong, Hemiechiuus is reduced to a synonym of the 

 same. It is of interest to find that Sundevall refers to his 

 Ericius group, in addition to those already mentioned, mostly 

 the same species as Thomas (/. c.) counts to Hemiechinus — 

 viz. col/aris, grayi(a.nd the identical spatangus), and dauuricus. 



It is of interest as well to find that Sundevall also bad 

 recognised that his heterodactylus=^albiventr is, Wagner, now 

 referred by Thomas to the genus Atelerix, and his athiopicus, 

 now by Thomas referred to the genus Paraechinus, were so 

 different inter se and from the others that they might be 

 generically separated. 



With regard to the supposed identity of auritus, Gm., and 

 platyotis, Sundev., it must be remembered that this identi- 

 fication was done at a time when the geographic races were 

 less studied and less valued than now. The present author 

 has unfortunately no material of the true auritus for com- 

 parison, and can thus only judge with the aid of the literature, 

 but according to that it appears little probable that the 

 identification mentioned can be upheld according to modern 

 views. ^'' Erinaceus auritus" wa.^, of course, from the 

 beginning, a comprehension of all hedgehogs with large cars 

 from Southern Russia, about Volga and all through Central 

 Asia, and southwards to Transcaucasia, &c. By and by, 

 from this heterogeneous mass, was split off albulus, Stol., 

 ■with its several subspecies in different parts of Central Asia. 

 Later on (1901) Satunin proved that the hedgehoir in tlie 

 country around Mount Ararat was a different species, which 



