58 ERINACEID^— ERINACEUS 



contraction of the powerful fibres of the panniculus carnosus 

 muscle which covers the body immediately under the skin ; and 

 thus it presents to its enemy an impenetrable panoply, beset by 

 innumerable spines standing out in every direction. The more 

 it is irritated or alarmed, the more firmly it contracts, and 

 the more strongly and stiffly the spines are set ; and its 

 appearance at such times did not escape the eye of Shake- 

 speare, who put the following into the mouth of Caliban : — 



" Then like hedgehogs, which 

 Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount 

 Their pricks at my footfall." 



— The Tempest, Act ii., scene 2, line 10. 



Bell, remarking on the strength and elasticity of this covering, 

 states that he repeatedly saw a domesticated hedgehog run to 

 the wall of an area, and, without hesitation, throw itself over. 

 Contracted into a ball, it fell twelve or fourteen feet, and, 

 immediately afterwards unrolling, ran off unhurt.^ 



The assertion of Pliny,^ followed by his numerous plagiarists, 

 that the means of defence just described are aided by another 

 of a very different character — the expulsion of the urine, in 

 such a manner that it spreads itself over the whole surface of 

 the skin, and by its odour disgusts and repels an assailant — 

 is doubtless based upon the incontinence of the terrified animals. 

 But it may also have reference, as suggested to me by Mr 

 C. B. Moffat from actual experience in this direction, to a 

 genuine, but not invariably used power of emitting an 

 unpleasant smell under the influence of fright. By the 

 Romans this assertion was doubtless read with reference to 

 a different object — namely, the supposed rendering useless by 

 this defence of the prickly skin, which they used in hackling 

 hemp for the weaving of cloth. Apart, however, from its 

 own unsavouriness, the numerous fleas and other parasites 

 which often make the Hedgehog their host render its examina- 

 tion at close quarters far from pleasant. 



The suggestion advanced above, that the Hedgehog is 



' And this observation has often been since confirmed, as by R. I. Pocock, who 

 writes me that he has often seen hedgehogs, in dropping from a table, slightly slide 

 off, turning in the air, so as to alight back downwards on the floor. See also 

 below, page 71. 



^ viii., xxxvii. 



