31une 



XXII 

 I FEEL grateful to the Lyon King of Arms who in the 

 The Hedge- sixteenth century prescribed that the branch 

 *^°^ of the clan to which I belong should bear as 

 'difference' a hurcheon or hedgehog in the centre of 

 the shield, to denote maternal descent from the family 

 of Herries. ^ Grateful, inasmuch as in the short list of 

 British mammals there is none more interesting to the 

 naturalist than the hedgehog, not only for its remark- 

 able defensive armature, but because the type has 

 persisted almost without change throughout a vast 

 geological period, involving alteration of climate and 

 alternation of temperature which sufficed to bring to a 

 close gigantic races such as the Diplodoccus, Iguanodon, 

 woolly elephant, and many others. In his monumental 

 work on British mammals, Mr. J. Q. Millais refers to an 

 animal resembling a hedgehog whereof the jawbone 

 and teeth were found in Eocene beds. '■' It is true that 

 Sir Richard Owen inclined to consider these remains as 

 showing closer affinity with the mole than with the hedge- 

 hog ; but both these animals are insectivores, probably 



' The paternal coat of Herries is argent, three hurcheons (hedge- 

 hogs), sable ; a piece of canting heraldry — Herries, quasi h^risson. 

 ^ That is, beds of the period following after the Chalk. 

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