about the beginning of May. They generally have four or five at a time; and it is easy to distinguish among other mole-hills, that in which the female has brought forth her young. These are made with much greater art than the rest; and are usually large. The female, in order to form this retreat, begins by erecting the earth into a tolerably spacious apartment, which is supported within by partitions, at proper distances, that prevent the roof from falling. All round this she works, and beats the earth very firm, so as to make it capable of keeping out the rain let it be never so violent. As the hillock in which this apartment is thus formed, is raised above ground, the apartment itself is consequently above the level of the plain, and, therefore, less subject to accidental slight inundations. The place being thus fitted, she then procures grass and dry leaves, as a bed for her young. There they lie secure from wet, and she continues to make their retreat equally so from danger; for all round this hill of her own raising, are holes running into the earth, that part from the middle apartment, like rays from a centre, and extend about fifteen feet in every direction: these resemble so many walks or chases, into which the animal makes her subterraneous excursions, and supplies her young with such roots or insects as she can provide: but they contribute still more to the general safety; for as the mole is very quick of hearing, the instant she perceives her little habitation attacked, she takes to her burrow, and unless the earth be dug away by several men at once, she and her young always make a good retreat.

The mole is scarcely found, except in cultivated countries: the varieties are but few. That which is found in Virginia, resembles the common mole, except in colour, which is black, mixed with a deep purple. There are sometimes white moles, seen particularly in Poland, rather larger than the former. As their skin is so very soft and beautiful, it is odd that it has not been turned to any advantage. Agricola tell us, that he saw hats made from it, the finest and the most beautiful that could be imagined.

without a chance of escape. The trap is very simple and effectual; but, somehow, the moles flourish in spite of their human enemies. Mole-catchers, a plodding, unscientific race, know little of their trade, which requires the most accurate study of the habits of the animal. There was a Frenchman of the name of Le Court, a man of great knowledge and perseverance, who did not think it beneath him to devote his whole attention to the observation of the mole. He established a school for mole-catching, and taught many, what he had acquired by incessant practice, the art of tracing the mole to his hiding place in the ground, and cutting off his retreat. The skill of this man once saved a large and fertile district of France from inundation by a canal, whose banks the moles had undermined in every direction. Le Court alone saw the mischief, and could stop it. Doubts have been entertained, whether the moles are really so mischievous to the farmer as they are generally supposed to be. It has been said that they assist the draining of land by forming their excavations, and that they thus prevent the foot-rot in sheep."NATURALISTS' CALENDAR, APRIL.

NORTH AMERICAN SHREW-MOLE.

The shrew-mole resembles the common European mole in its habits, in leading a subter, raneous life, forming galleries, throwing up little mounds of earth, and in feeding principally on earthworms and grubs. Dr. Godman has given a detailed and interesting account of their manners, particularly of one which was domesticated by Mr. Titian Peale. He mentions that they are most active early in the morning, at mid-day, and in the evening, and that they are well known in the country to have the custom of coming daily to the surface exactly at noon. They may then be taken alive by thrusting a spade beneath them, and throwing them on the surface; but can scarcely be caught at any other period of the day. The captive one in the possession of Mr. Peale ate considerable quantities of fresh meat, either cooked or raw, drank freely, and was remarkably lively and playful, following the hand of its feeder by the scent, burrowing for a short distance in the loose earth, and, after making a small circle, returning for more food. When engaged in eating he employed his flexible snout in a singular manner to thrust the food into his mouth, doubling it so as to force it directly backwards. DR. RICHARDSON'S ZOOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICA.

CHAP. XVI.

ANIMALS OF

THE HEDGE-HOG, OR PRICKLY KIND.*

ANIMALS of the hedge-hog kind require but very little accuracy to distinguish them from all others. That hair which

serves the generality of quadrupeds for warmth and ornament, is partly wanting in these; while its place is supplied by sharp spines or prickles, that serve for their defence.

The hedge-hog, with an appearance the most formidable, is yet one of the most harmless animals in the world: unable or unwilling to offend, all its precautions are only directed to its own security; and it is armed with a thousand points, to keep off the enemy, but not to invade him.

This animal is of two kinds: one with a nose like the snout of a hog; the other, more short and blunt, like that of a dog. That with the muzzle of a dog is the most common, being about six inches in length, from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail. The tail is little more than an inch long; and so concealed by the spines, as to be scarce visible: the head, back, and sides, are covered with prickles; the nose, breast, and belly, are covered with fine, soft hair;(g) the legs are short, of a dusky colour, and almost bare; the toes on each foot are five in number, long and separated; the prickles are about an inch in length, and very sharp-pointed; their lower part is white, the middle black, and the points white: the eyes are small, and placed high in the head; the ears are round, pretty large, and naked; the mouth is small, but well furnished with teeth; these, however, it only uses in chewing its food, but neither in attacking nor defending itself against other animals. Its only reliance in cases of danger, is on its spines; the instant it perceives an enemy, it puts itself into a posture of defence, and keeps upon its guard until it supposes the danger over. On such occasions, it immediately alters its whole appearance: from its usual form, somewhat resembling a small animal, with a bunch on its back, the animal begins to bend its back, to lay its head upon its breast, to shut its eyes, to roll down the skin of its sides towards the legs, to draw these up, and lastly, to tuck them in on every side, by drawing the skin still closer. In this form, which the hedgehog always puts on when disturbed, it no way resembles an animal, but rather a roundish mass of prickles, impervious on every side. The shape of the animal thus rolled up, somewhat resembles a chestnut in the husk; there being, on one side, a kind of flat space, which is that on which the head and legs have been tucked in.

The hedge-hog, like most other wild animals, sleeps by day, and ventures out by night. It generally resides in small thickets, in hedges, or in ditches covered

HEDGE-HOG's have two front teeth in each jaw; those of the upper jaw are distant from each other, those of the lower are placed near together; the canine teeth are five on each side in the upper jaw, and three in the

(g) Præputium propendens. Linnæi Syst. resupina copulatur.

lower; there are four grinders on each side both above and below; and the body is clothed on the upper parts with sharp spines. There are seven species, of which only the common hedge-hog is found in Europe.j

75.

And of the female he might have said,

with bushes; there it makes a hole of about six or eight inches deep, and lies well wrapped up, in moss, grass, or leaves. Its food is roots, fruits, worms, and insects.

Buffon, who kept these animals tame about his house, acquits them of the reproach of being mischievous in the garden; but then he accuses them of tricks, of which from the form and habits of this animal one would be never led to suspect them. "I have often," says he, " had the female and her young brought me about the beginning of June: they are generally from three to five in number: they are white in the beginning, and only the marks of their spines appear: I was willing to rear some of them, and accordingly put the dam and her young into a tub, with abundant provision beside them; but the old animal, instead of suckling her young, devoured them all, one after another. On another occasion, a hedge-hog that had made its way into the kitchen, discovered a little pot, in which there was meat prepared for boiling; the mischievous animal drew out the meat, and left its excrements in the stead. I kept males and females in the same apartment, where they lived together but never coupled. I permitted several of them to go about my garden; they did very little damage, and it was scarcely perceivable that they were there: they lived upon the fruits that fell from the trees: they dug the earth into shallow holes: they ate caterpillars, beetles, and worms; they were also very fond of flesh, which they devoured boiled or raw."

They couple in spring, and bring forth about the beginning of summer. They sleep during the winter, and what is said of their laying up provisions for that season, is consequently false. They at no time eat much, and can remain very long without any food whatsoever. Their blood is cold, like all other animals that sleep during the winter. Their flesh is not good for food; and their skins are converted to scarce any use, except to muzzle calves, to keep them from sucking.

THE TANREC AND TENDRAC.-The Tanrec and Tendrac, are two little animals,

described by Buffon, of the hedge-hog kind; but yet sufficiently different from it, to constitute a differ ent species. Like

they are covered w

the hedge-hog,

with prickles,

though mixed in

a greater proportion with hair; but unlike that animal, they do not defend them selves by rolling up in a ball. Their wanting this last property is alone suffi cient to distinguish them from an animal in which it makes the most strikingpeculiarity as also, that in the East Indies, where only they are found, the hedge-hog exists separately also: a manifest proof that this animal is not a variety caused by the climate.

The tanrec is much less than the hedge-hog,(g) being about the size of a mole, and covered with prickles, like that animal, except that they are shorter and smaller. The tendrac is still less than the former, and is defended only with prickles upon the head, the neck, and the shoulders; the rest being covered with a coarse hair, resembling a hog's bristles. These little animals, whose legs are very short, move but slowly. They grunt like a hog; and wallow, like it, in the mire. They love to be near water; and spend more of their time there than upon land. They are chiefly in creeks and harbours of salt water. They multiply in great numbers, make themselves holes in the ground, and

(g) Buffon, vol. xxv. p. 254.

sleep for several months. During this torpid state, their hairs (and I should also suppose their prickles) fall; and they are renewed upon their revival. They are usually very fat; and although their flesh be insipid, soft, and stringy, yet the Indians find it to their taste, and consider it as a very great delicacy.

THE PORCUPINE.*-Those arms which the hedge-hog possesses in miniature, the porcu

piue has in a more enlarged degree. The short prickles of the hedge-hog are in this animal converted into shafts. In the one the spines are about an inch long; in the other, a foot. The porcupine is about two feet long, and fifteen inches high. Like the hedge-hog, it appears a mass of misshapen flesh, covered with quilis, from ten to fourteen inches long, resembling the barrel of a goose-quill in thickness; but taper ng and

sharp at both ends. These, whether considered separately or together, afford sufficient subject to detain curiosity. Each quill is thickest in the middle; and inserted into the animal's skin in the same manner as feathers are found to grow upon birds. It is within side spongy, like the top of a goose-quill; and of different colours, being white and black alternately, from one end to the other. The biggest are often found fifteen inches long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter; extremely sharp, and capable of inflicting a mortal wound. They seem harder than common quills, being difficult to be cut, and solid at that end which is not fixed in the skin. If we examine them in common, as they grow upon the animal, they appear of two kinds; the one such as I have already described; the other, long, flexible and slender, growing here and there among the former. There is still another sort of quills, that grow near the tail, white and transparent, like writing quills, and that seem to be cut short at the end. All these quills, of whatsoever kind, incline backwards, like the bristles of a hog; but when the animal is irritated, they rise, and stand upright, as bristles are seen to do.t

Such is the formation of this quadruped, in those parts in which it differs from most others: as to the rest of its figure, the muzzle bears some resemblance to that of a hare, but black; the legs are very short, and the feet have five toes, both before and behind; and these, as well as the belly, the head, and all other parts of the body, are covered with a sort of short hair, like prickles, there being no part, except the ears and the sole of the foot, that is free from them: the ears are thinly covered with very fine hair: and are in shape like those of mankind; the eyes are small like those of a hog, being only one-third of an inch from one corner to the other. After the skin is taken off, there appear a kind of paps on those parts of the body from whence the large quills proceed; these

THE PORCUPINE has two front teeth in each jaw, which are cut obliquely; and eight grinders on each side in both jaws; there are four toes on the fore-feet, and five on the hinder. There are five species beside the common porcupine.

ECONOMY.-Professor Thunberg, in his second journey to the island Mature, in the

Indian Ocean, informs us, that the porcupine has a very curious method of fetching water for its young. The quills in the tail are said to be hollow, and to have a hole at the extremity; these the animal can bend in such a manner, as that they can be filled with water, which is afterwards discharged in the nest among its young.

are about the size of a small pea, each answering to as many holes which appear on the outward surface of the skin, and which are about half an inch deep, like as many hollow pipes, wherein the quills are fixed, as in so many sheaths.

This animal seems to partake very much of the nature of the hedge-hog; having this formidable apparatus of arms rather to defend itself, than annoy the enemy. There have been, indeed, many naturalists who supposed that it was capable of discharging them at its foes, and killing at a great distance off. But this opinion has been entirely discredited of late; and it is now universally believed that its quills remain firmly fixed in the skin, and are then only shed when the animal moults them, as birds do their feathers. It is probable, that the porcupine when attacked by bolder animals, directs its quills so as to keep always pointing towards the enemy.* These are an ample protection; and, as we are assured by Kolben, at such times, even the lion himself will not venture to make an attack. From such, therefore, the por upine can defend itself and chiefly hunts for serpents, and all other reptiles, for subsistence. Travellers universally assure us that, between the serpent and the porcupine there exist an irreconcileable enmity, and that they never meet without a mortal engagement.

The Americans, who hunt this animal, assure us, that the porcupine lives from twelve to fifteen years. During the time of coupling, which is in the month of September, the males become very fierce and dangerous, and often are seen to destroy each other with their teeth. The female goes with young seven months, and brings forth but one at a time; this she suckles but about a month, and accustoms it betimes to live, like herself, upon vegetables and the bark of trees; she is very fierce in its defence; but, at other seasons, she is fearful, timid, and harmless.

The porcupine does not escape so well from the Indian hunter, who eagerly pursues it, in order so make embroidery of its quills, and to eat its flesh. This, as we are commonly told, is very tolerable eating; however, we may expect wretched provisions when the savages are to be our caterers, for they eat every thing that has life. But they are very ingenious with regard to their embroidery: if I understand the accounts rightly, they dye the quills of various colours, and then splitting them into slips, as we see in the making of a caue-chair, they embroider, with these, their belts, baskets, and several other necessary pieces of furniture.

The porcupines of America differ very much from those of the ancient continent, which we have been describing; and, strictly speaking, may be considered as animals of a different species: however, from their being covered with quills, we will only add them as varieties of the former, since we know very little concerning them, except their difference of figure. They are of two kinds; the one

*PORCUPINE QUILLS.-Porcupines are of ten found in beating canes for hogs; they are easily speared; the flesh of the young ones is very good, and sometimes similar to pork or veal. With respect to shooting their quills, it is merely fabulous: dogs are apt to run upon them, and the quills being sharp, penetrate so deeply, and hold so fast, as to occasion them to quit their matrice or insertion in the porcupine's skin. The wounds are not dangerous except from their depth. Many horses will not approach porcupines when running, by reason of a peculiar rattling their quills make against each other. The horseman should stab his spear into porcupines, there being no danger in approaching them.-ORIENTAL FIELD SPORTS.

M. D. Vaillant in his Travels, says, that wing to some pernicious quality in the quills,

one of his Hottentots, who had received a wound in his leg from a porcupine, was ill for more than six months.

SHOOTING ITS QUILLS. Upon the slightest irritation it raises its quills, and shakes them with great violence, directing them to that quarter from whence it is in danger of being attacked, and striking at the object of its resentment at the same time. "We have observed, on an occasion of this sort, at a time when the animal was moulting or casting its quills, that they would fly out to the distance of a few yards, with such force as to bend the points of them against the board where they struck; and it is not improbable that a circumstance of this kind may have given rise to an opinion of its power to use them in a more effectual manner. - BEWICK'S HISTORY OF QUADRupeds.