Also 8 tondruck, tendrac. [= F. tanrec, ad. Malagasy tàndraka, dial. form of tràndraka, the native name.] An insectivorous mammal, Centetes ecaudatus, allied to the hedgehog, and covered with spiny bristles intermixed with silky hairs; the Madagascar hedgehog. Also any species of the genus Centetes or family Centetidæ.
1729. R. Drury, Madagascar (1890), 81. A creature which I call a ground-hog, and which in their language is called ‘tondruck.’
1785. Smellie, trans. Buffon’s Nat. Hist. (1791), VII. 86. The Tanrecs or Tendracs are small East Indian animals, which have some resemblance to our hedgehog.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., II. xxiv. 514. The hedgehog and tenrec present … something more than an analogy to the porcupines and some of the rats.
1852. Th. Ross, Humboldt’s Trav., II. xvii. 134. The tanrecs, or Madagascar hedgehogs,… pass three months of the year in lethargy.
1879. E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 69. The Spiny Tanrec (Ericulus spinosis) is considerably smaller than the previously-mentioned species [Centetes ecaudatus].
1900. Westm. Gaz., 8 Sept., 8/2. Two curious little creatures,… called Tenrecs…, have just been added to the Zoo.
