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Show 1881.] MR. G. E. DOBSON ON THE ERINACEIDSE. 389 4. Notes on the Anatomy of the Erinaceida?. By G. E. DOBSON, M.A., M.B., &c. [Received February 21, 1881.] In entering upon the study of the Insectivora1, the species of the family Erinaceidse recommend themselves as the primary objects for examination, not only on account of their comparatively large size, but also by their remarkably central position with respect to the other species of the Order. Experience in dealing with the natural history of another mammalian order, the Chiroptera, has specially impressed upon the writer the great importance of investigating, as far as possible, the internal structure of the leading forms before attempting to classify the species according to their natural affinities. H e therefore purposes, in treating of the natural history of each family of Insectivora, to preface the systematic part of the work with an account of the anatomy of the principal species2. The family Erinaceidae comprises two genera only, Gymnura and Erinaeeus : the latter is represented by several species, inhabiting chiefly the temperate and subtropical parts of the Palaearctic, Ethiopian, and Oriental regions ; the former by a single species, which is apparently limited to the Indo-Malayan subregion. With the exception of a few scattered notices, all imperfect and many incorrect, and referring only to the common European Hedgehog, no account has hitherto been published of the anatomy of the species of this family. The genus Gymnura is represented by a single species, G. raffiesii, inhabiting Southern Burma, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, hitherto known only from a few more or less imperfect skeletons and some dried skins. Lately, however, a very perfect skeleton has been added to the collection of the British Museum ; and M r . W . T. Blanford, F.R.S., has placed in the writer's hands for examination a specimen of an adult female3, well preserved in alcohol, which was obtained by M r . Davison at Bankasun, in Southern Tenas-serim. 1 The following notes on the anatomy of the species of the family Erinaceidse are extracted from the M S . of the first part of a Systematic and Anatomical Treatise on the Order Insectivora, which the writer is about to publish as a separate work. 2 For the material which has formed the basis of this paper the especial thanks of the writer are due to Mr. W . T. Blanford, F.R.S., who placed his excellent collection of the species of Asiatic Erinaceidse at his disposal; to Prof. W . H . Flower, F.R.S., Conservator of the Hunterian Museum ; to Dr. Gunther, F.R.S., Keeper of the Zoological Department of the British Museum ; and to Monsieur Fernand Lataste, President of the Zoological Society of France, who forwarded for examination the valuable specimens of Insectivora collected by him in Algeria. 3 Described in Mr. Blanford's paper " O n some Mammals from Tenasserim," in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xlvii. part ii. 1878, p. 150. |