NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
385 
and each of the backbones fits on to its neighbour by a wonderful 
joint, which keeps the chain of bones quite stiff w^hen the 
animal is walking, but enables him to coil up into a ball 
at the slightest provocation. I find that the hedgehog has a 
clavicle, or collar-bone, evidently for the purpose of using his 
fore-paws for digging. His digging claws are also peculiar, and 
Avhen curved together assume a shape very like that of the ant- 
eater, the fellow who pulls down the ants' nests with his tre- 
mendous claws. 
Being anxious to settle the point, mentioned by White, as to 
whether the spines of the hedgehog at birth are soft, I obtained 
a hedgehog from my brother-in-law, the Eev. H. Gordon, 
Halting Eectory, Petersfield. To my great delight I one morn- 
ing found, among the straw in the box, one baby hedgehog just 
born. There had been probably a large family born, but the 
mother had eaten them all but this one. Here is a life-sized 
BABV HKOGKUOi; — l.IFK .SIZK 
picture of him. White was quite correct. The spines were soft 
and flexible at the birth of the little beast; they were little 
dumpy spikes, much resembling the incipient feathers of a 
young bird. Even in the few hours the hedgehog lived these 
bristles grew considerably. I have made a cast of him, and 
coloured it to life. 
Few people, perhaps, have heard the cry of a hedgehog when 
caught in a steel-trap, and few would imagine that such a cry 
of pain and agony, somewhat resembling that of a child or a 
hare, could be produced by it. The flesh of the hedgehog is spid 
to resemble chicken, and is eaten in large quantities by gipsies. 
Hedgehogs are popularly said to be able to resist the effects 
of prussic acid, arsenic, aconite, and wourali. When studying 
chemistry at Giessen with Professor Liebig I tried prussic 
acid, and it was fatal to the poor hedgehog. I have also tried 
hedgehogs with vipers. The viper struck the hedgehog two or 
three times in the face, where there are no bristles ; the blows 
were well aimed, and meant to do business, as at that moment 
