ORDER CARNASSIER. 165 



But the Hedgehog is one of those animals which form 

 some exception to this general law. It is by no means so 

 exclusively submitted to the influence of those causes which 

 surround it. Its means of defence are to a certain extent 

 independents the number of its enemies. Notwithstand- 

 ing its weakness, it bids defiance to their power, it braves 

 their attacks in all the consciousness of security, and finds 

 the means of escape, of shelter, of resistance, in the re- 

 sources which it has received from the bounty of nature. 

 The thorns in which it possesses the faculty of self-envelop- 

 ment, and which radiate round the circle of which its body 

 forms the centre, constitute a rampart, before which the 

 most powerful and voracious animals, which might other- 

 wise be tempted to prey upon the Hedgehog, must infallibly 

 be obliged to retire. 



It is not easy to conjecture for what reason so especial a 

 favour has been conferred upon an animal, which by its 

 littleness, its silence, the obscurity of its life, and the few- 

 ness of its wants, would have been sufficiently concealed 

 from all eyes, and sheltered from every enemy. One would 

 imagine, from its provisions of defence, that it was destined 

 to perform some important and necessary part in the grand 

 economy of nature. But its habits, its appetites, and its 

 instincts, do not differ materially from those of the other 

 Mammalia, much more ill-provided against the approaches 

 of danger, but which, nevertheless, contrive to preserve 

 their existence for the prescribed period of its duration. 

 The Moles, the Shrews, and all the omnivorous Rodentia, 

 subsist, like the Hedgehog, on worms, insects, roots, and 

 fruits. 



The majority of them, too, like this animal, shun the light 

 of day, and conceal themselves in retreats of obscurity and 

 silence. Nor is the Hedgehog distinguished for more intel- 

 ligence than the rest, for in all of .them the power of per- 

 ception seems limited to the faculty of distinguishing among 

 the small number of causes which are influential on their 



