358 HABITS OF THE HEDGEHOG. 



The creature was marvellously tame, and would come at any time to a saucer of milk in 

 broad daylight. Sometimes it took a fancy to promenading the garden, when it would trot 

 along in its own quaint style, poking its sharp nose into every crevice, and turning over every 

 fallen leaf that lay in its path. If it heard a strange step, it would immediately curl itself 

 into a ball, and lie in that posture for a few minutes until its alarm had passed away, when it 

 would cautiously unroll itself, peer about with its little bead-like eyes for a moment or two, 

 and then resume its progress. 



From all appearances, it might have lived for many years had it not come by its death in 

 a rather singular manner. There was a wood-shed in the kitchen-garden, where the bean and 

 pea-sticks were laid up in ordinary during the greater part of the year, and it seemed, for some 

 unknown reason, to afford a marvellous attraction to the Hedgehog. So partial to this locality 

 was the creature, that whenever it was missing we were nearly sure to find it among the bean- 

 sticks in the wood-shed. One morning, however, on searching for the animal, in consequence 

 of having missed its presence for some days, we found it hanging by its neck in the fork of a 

 stick, and quite dead. The poor creature had probably slipped while climbing among the 

 sticks, and had been caught by the neck in the bifurcation. 



It has just been mentioned that the Hedgehog was in the habit of drinking milk from a 

 saucer, and this fact leads to the prevalent idea that the Hedgehogs are accustomed to suck 

 cows while they are lying on the ground. Naturalists have generally denied this statement, 

 saying, as is true enough, that the little mouth of the Hedgehog is so small that it would not 

 be capable of sucking the cow, and that, even if it could do so, its needle-pointed teeth would 

 be so painful to the cow that she would drive away the robber as soon as she felt its teeth. So 

 far they are quite correct, for both their propositions are undoubtedly true. But, nathless, 

 there is great truth in the assertion that the Hedgehog drinks the milk of cows. I have 

 received several communications on this subject, where my correspondents assert that they 

 have seen the creature engaged in that pursuit, and I have been told by several credible wit- 

 nesses that they have been spectators of the same circumstance. But in neither case was it 

 asserted that the animal was really sucking the cow, but that it was lying on the ground, lap- 

 ping up the milk as it oozed from the over-filled udder of the animal before the hour of milk- 

 ing had arrived. Granting this to be a fact, the creature can yet do no real injury to the 

 farmer or the dairyman, as the amount of milk which it thus consumes is very small, and would 

 have been wasted, had it not been lapped up by the Hedgehog's greedy tongue. 



The Hedgehog is also accused of stealing and breaking eggs, to which indictment it can 

 but plead guilty. 



It is very ingenious in its method of opening and eating eggs ; a feat which it performs 

 without losing any of the golden contents. Instead of breaking the shell, and running the 

 chance of permitting the contents to roll out, the clever animal lays the egg on the ground, 

 holds it firmly between its fore-feet, bites a hole in the upper portion of the shell, and, insert- 

 ing its tongue into the orifice, licks out the contents daintily. 



Not contenting itself with such comparatively meagre diet as eggs, the Hedgehog is a great 

 destroyer of snakes, frogs, and other animals, crunching them together with their bones as 

 easily as a horse will eat a carrot. Even the thick bone of a mutton-chop, or the big bone of 

 a fish, is splintered by the Hedgehog's teeth with marvellous ease. On one account it is rather 

 a valuable animal, for it will attack a viper as readily as a grass-snake, being apparently proof 

 against the venom of the serpent's fangs. Experiments have been tried in order to prove the 

 poison-resisting power of this strange animal, which seems to be invulnerable to every kind of 

 poison, whether taken internally or mixed with the blood by insertion into a wound. 



On one occasion, a Hedgehog was placed in a box together with a viper, and, after a while, 

 began to attack it. The snake, being irritated, rose up, and bit its assailant smartly on the 

 lip. The Hedgehog took but little notice of the incident, but, after licking the wounded spo*- 

 once or twice, returned to the charge. At last it succeeded in killing the viper, and, aftei 

 having done so, ate its vanquished enemy, beginning at the tail, and so working upwards. The 

 animal always seems to eat a snake in this fashion, and on one occasion was known to pro- 

 ceed with its banquet while the poor snake was still living. 



