THE TANREC. 
361 
potation produced all its effects — lie tottered, then fell on Ms side ; he was drank in the fnll 
sense of the word, for he could not even hold by the ground. We could then pull. Mm about, 
open his mouth, twitch his whiskers, etc. — he was unresisting. There was a strange expres- 
sion in his face of that self-confidence which we see in cowards when inspired by drinking. 
“'We put him away, and in some twelve hours afterwards found him running about, and, as 
was predicted, quite tame, his spines lying so smoothly and regularly that he could be stroked 
down the back and handled freely. We turned him into the kitchen to kill cockroaches, and 
know nothing further of him.” 
The home of the Hedgehog is made in some retired and well-protected spot, such as a 
crevice in rocky ground, or under the stones of some old ruin. It greatly affects hollow trees, 
wherever the decayed wood permits it to find an easy entrance, and not unfrequently is found 
coiled up in a warm nest which it has made under the large gnarled roots of some old tree, 
where the rains have washed away the earth and left the roots projecting occasionally from 
the ground. Beside these legitimate habitations, the Hedgehog is frequently found to intrude 
itself upon the homes of other animals, and has been often captured within rabbit-burrows. 
Perhaps it may be led to these localities by the double motive of obtaining shelter from weather 
and enemies and of making prey of an occasional young rabbit. 
In its retreat the Hedgehog usually passes the winter in that semi-animate condition 
which is known by the name of hibernation. It, however, lays up no stores, nor, indeed, could 
it do so, for, as has already been mentioned, its food is almost entirely of an animal nature. 
The hibernation ci» the Hedgehog has lately been denied, because Hedgehogs are occasion- 
ally found at large during the winter months. Yet this is no proof to the contrary, for it has 
already been noticed that the bears are occasionally in the habit of roaming about during the 
winter, instead of lying motionless in their dens, as is the general custom, yet no one denies 
the hibernation of the bear in consequence. The subject of Mbemation has been most elab- 
orately worked out by Dr. Marshall Hall, who has published the result of his experiments 
in “Todd’s Cyclopaedia of Anatomy,” and has made many curious observations on the 
hibernating qualities of the animal which is now under consideration. 
In tMs able dissertation, Dr. Hall warns observers against confounding together the torpor 
which is produced by excessive cold and that peculiar torpid state which is called hibernation. 
Indeed, it is always found that although a Hedgehog, or other hibernating animal, will pass 
into its semi-animate condition at a moderately low temperature, it will be roused at once by 
severe cold, and will not again resume its lethargy until the temperature be somewhat moder- 
ated. “ All hibernating animals,” he observes, “ avoid exposure to extreme cold. They seek 
some secure retreat, make themselves nests or houses, or congregate in clusters, and if the 
season prove unusually severe, or if their retreat be not well chosen, and they be exposed in 
consequence to excessive cold, many become benumbed, stiff, and die.” 
Those who experiment upon so delicate a subject as hibernation must bear this in mind, 
and remember also that the least disquieting of the animal will injure the condition under 
which it sustains its torpidity, even though it should be of so slight a nature as touching the 
table on which it is placed, or walking with a heavy step across the room. One experimenter, 
who thought that intense cold was the cause of the torpidity, surrounded a hibernating Hedge- 
hog with a freezing mixture, in the hope of plunging the annual into a more profound sleep. 
The result, however, was entirely different from his expectation, for the excess of cold first 
awoke the sleeping animal and afterwards froze it to death. 
If the sleeping Hedgehog be touched, or otherwise disturbed, it rouses itself from its 
lethargy, walks about a little, takes some food, if there should be any at hand, and soon 
returns to its somnolent condition. 
6 
Although unable to contract itself into a ball, after the manner of the true Hedgehogs, 
the Tahrec, or Madagascar Hedgehog, as it is sometimes called, is closely allied to these 
animals, and in many respects bears some resemblance to them. 
In size, this animal is about the equal of the European Hedgehog, but is rather more 
elongated in its form, and furnished with longer legs, so that when it walks it does not carry 
