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The Hedgehogs are distinguished by being covered, more or less exclusively, with spines or stiff bristles. In one foreign genus (Gymnura) however, spines are mingled with woolly hair., They have the faculty of rolling themselves up into a ball; and thus, presenting only an array of stiff spines pointing in every direction, are well defended from injury. All their limbs are formed for walking.

The genera are confined to the Old World; the true Hedgehogs (Erinaceus) are distributed over Europe, Asia, and Africa, while others are assigned to Madagascar, and the Oriental Islands.

A body covered wholly with stiff spines; a pointed muzzle; ashort tail; together with peculiarities of the teeth, mark the genus Hrinaceus, of which our common Hedgehog or Urchin (L. Europeus, .) is afamiliar example. The dentition, according to M. F. Cuvier, is as follows:—inc. $6⁄2$; can, $0—0⁄0—0$; mol. $7—7⁄7—7$:=36 but some naturalists consider the anterior two false molars on each side of the lower jaws to be incisors. The cutting teeth of the upper jaw are long, robust, and prominent.

The inoffensive Hedgehog is well known in the rural districts of this country, for its singular, but most efficacious means of defence against injury.