ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 233 



I have spent many pleasant evening hours during this summer 

 in observing their habits. In May, before the young growths on 

 the small trees in the nursery rows had much advanced, the Hedge- 

 hogs were easily seen. One evening I had eight of them in 

 full view within twenty yards. Their extreme pugnacity does not 

 seem to have been noted so far as I can find. On i5th May, 

 I found a couple of males " snuffling " at each other, and then 

 they began a monotonous mill-wheel walk with noses opposed. 

 This circling around each other continued for three-quarters of an 

 hour by my watch. I left them for about twenty minutes, and on 

 my return a few minutes after ten o'clock they were gone. But 

 I found them some sixty yards off, rolling over, and worrying each 

 other as viciously as ever I saw dogs fighting. Each had hold 

 of the other by the fore-paw, and they were shaking one another 

 as a terrier does a rat. Both were blowing and puffing with 

 the exertion. Sometimes one was uppermost, sometimes the other. 

 An incautious approach on my part ended the fight, and they 

 both scuttled into the bushes. They had been tearing at each 

 other for eight minutes in my sight. That was the " best " fight 

 I saw during the season. Apparently it was males only who 

 fought. Hedgehogs are not at all exclusively nocturnal. In 

 April I found them abroad, rooting about in the sunshine, on 

 several occasions. On 25th April in particular, I saw one going 

 about most of the afternoon while the sun was shining clearly. 

 On the hot evenings also they come out long before sunset. For 

 instance, on 2oth July, after the hottest day of a hot season, the 

 protected thermometer on that day having risen here to 91, and 

 a thunderstorm having begun that lasted for most part of the 

 two subsequent days, many hedgehogs were out feeding by 6.30 P.M. 

 Was it the temperature or the electric state of the air that set 

 them moving ? Most individuals are quite silent, and it seems 

 to be only the discontented old males that indulge in "snuffling.'' 

 In Lydekker's rather disappointing book on " British Mammals " this 

 sound emitted by the hedgehog is described as " something between 

 a grunt and a squeak." I think it might be more correctly described 

 as a cross betwixt a cough and a snort. A vessel of milk placed 

 for the cats has been regularly visited these last three summers 

 by a hedgehog. If there is any milk left in the dish, it is lapped up 

 clean by the hedgehog. Many a time it has been found doing 

 this, and when a light is brought it still goes on licking the milk 

 quite unconcernedly. Needless to say, it is never molested. 

 ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwelltown. 



Hedgehog 1 in Argyllshire. So little seems to be definitely 

 known about the Hedgehog (Erinaceus europa>us) in Argyll (vide 

 Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley's "Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll 

 and the Inner Hebrides ") that it may be worth noting that I 



