50 ERINACEID^— ERINACEUS 



supposed to have been imported in bales of hay !] (Hinxman and Eagle 

 Clarice, Journ. cit, 1903, 70); Argyll (Boyd Watt, Journ. cit., 1901, 

 233-234; J. M. Campbell, Journ. cit, 1902, 50; and Godfrey, 117); and 

 the Dumbarton side of Loch Long, in 1900 (Evans, in lit.). 



From the Scottish islands it is as a rule absent ; but it appears in 

 Mull vermin lists of 1825 at a reward of threepence per head (MacLaine 

 of Lochbuie, Journ. cit., 1895, 193); it is common in Bute (Colquhoun, 

 Sporting Days, loi ; also Boyd Watt), and has been trapped in the Mull 

 of Kintyre (Harvie-Brown and Buckley). It has been introduced at 

 Loch Tingwall, near Lerwick, Shetland (Millais), as well as in the 

 Orkneys ; in the latter it has not been since heard of (Harvie-Brown 

 and Buckley) ; in the Shetlands it has been found near Cunningsburg, 

 Mossbank and Loch Spiggie, Weisdale and Dale in Delting (Buckley 

 and Evans, Fauna of Shetland, 1899, 57). Ussher found the bleached leg 

 of one at a peregrine's plucking place on the South Saltee Island, co. 

 Wexford , Ireland {Zoologist, 1 886, 96). 1 1 occurs in Jersey and Guernsey, 

 but in each case is said to have " been introduced " (Sinel). 



Distribution in time : — This species is at least of pleistocene age in 

 Britain, although the records are not always clear ; witness Macpherson's 

 allusions to remains found in the fissures of Helsfel, near Kendal. 

 Andrews identified its bones from the debris of the neolithic lake- 

 village at Glastonbury, Somerset {Ibis, 1899, 358), where it was a con- 

 temporary of Pelecanus crispus, and Jackson has lately obtained a 

 single left upper molar from the cave-earth of Dog Holes, Warton 

 Crags, Lancashire, a deposit of late pleistocene age {Lancashire 

 Naturalist, 1910, 326). Leith Adams's record from Ballynamintra 

 Cave, Co. Waterford, Ireland {Trans. Roy. Dublin Soc, 2, i., 206, 1881), 

 is stated by Scharff to have been an error. The latter's description 

 of Ussher's collections from the Edenvale, Newhall and Barntick Caves 

 of Co. Clare, Ireland {Trans. Roy. Irish Academy, Feb. 1906, i., 52, 

 64), are therefore very welcome. In these, hedgehog bones are present 

 in abundance, mostly from the upper and more recent strata, but 

 their position proves nothing, since their appearance was ancient 

 and the superficial stratum of Newhall Cave contained remains of 

 such extinct animals as the Gigantic Irish Deer, Reindeer, Banded 

 Lemming, Bear, and Arctic Fox. Fortunately one distinct " find" hails 

 from the lower stratum of Newhall Cave, thus placing the pleistocene 

 age of the Hedgehog in Ireland also beyond doubt. 



The period of gestation is probably seven weeks (Lilljeborg). 



The rutting season is evidently early, since the young, the 

 number of which, although usually about four, may reach eight, have 

 been found in April. A second litter sometimes appears between the 

 middle of August and the end of September (see also p. 73). 



The droppings are sometimes very abundant, but are not always 



