14:0 
VEETEBEATA. 
turnal animals, sleeping during the day in holes under the roots of trees or stones, and coming 
forth at night in search of insects, fruits, and roots. Those which inhabit cold climates pass the 
winter in a state of torpidity. The female produces from four to six at a birth, in the month of 
June : these at first are of a rose-white. When of the size of a hen's egg, their prickles are well 
developed. The mother nurses them for a short time, and then leaves them to seek their for- 
tune, which they are well able to do. 
The common European hedgehog, Erinaceus euroj)ceus, is found in woods and hedgerows, and 
in England is not unfrequently kept in kitchens for the purpose of destroying cockroaches. It 
feeds freely upon almost all kinds of animal and vegetable matter, and kills and devours animals 
which none of the other insectivora would venture to attack, such as snakes, which it eats, accord- 
ing to Mr. Broderip, " as one would eat a radish," commencing at the tail and eating upward. It 
will even eat the insects called Cantharicles, or Simnish flies^ which would kill almost any other 
animal ; but the hedgehog suffers no inconvenience from them. In illustration of the strength of 
the prickles in its skin, Professor Bell states that he has repeatedly seen a hedgehog belonging to 
himself precipitate itself down an area twelve or fourteen feet deep, and, by rolling itself up into a 
ball, arrive at the bottom without the least injury. 
The other species are the Long-eared Hedgkhog, E. anritus, and the E. concolor^ found on the 
borders of the Black Sea; the E. Grayi and the E. sjoatangus of the Himalaya Mountains; the 
E. nudiventris, of Madras; the E. collaris, of India; the E. Algiras, of Barbary, and the E. fron- 
talis and E. Cajjensis, of Southern Africa. The bones of hedgehogs are found largely in the fossil 
remains of Europe. 
baffle's gymnhke. 
THE GYMNURES. 
Of this family there is but a single genus, GYMNUEE, Gymnura, and a single species, Gymnura 
Rafflesii^ found in Sumatra. It is little known, but seems to possess more teeth than the hedge- 
hog — that is, forty-four in nimiber. It is nearly of the same size as that animal, but its body is 
more elongated. Its fur is soft, and of a grayish color : its tail is long, and nearly naked. Its 
formation is in several respects peculiar, and hence it has been placed among the viverrins by some 
naturalists, and among the marsupials by others. We follow Gervais in placing it next the hedge- 
hogs, with which it seems to have the closest affinity. 
