On the Hedgehogs from Madagascar

Mivart ¹) in a very interesting paper has pointed out the resemblances and differences between the skeleton and dentition of the genus Centetes and Hemicentetes. But it seems that he has confounded the two species which were known as belonging to the genus Hemicentetes , for he describes and figures very exactly the different parts of the skull and skeleton of Hemicentetes varieqatus, Et. Geoff. St. Hilaire, under the name Hemicentetes madagascariensis, Shaw, — notwithstanding these two species present great differences in external characteristics and also in dentition, that is to say in the mutual proportions of the teeth. As in so many other parts of Natural History there exists a very great confusion in the names given by the different authors to the various species of Hedgehogs from Madagascar.