HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE- G O SSIP. 



I2 3 



some wire being put in the front, and some hay 

 placed in the bottom, which answered, although a 

 little cramped for room, admirably. 



About their food I was in great doubt. It would 

 be impossible for me to provide a regular supply of 

 frogs, snails, &c. However, as a substitute, I tried 

 bread and milk, and as they did not eat during the 

 day, I was in great fears lest they had died, or would 

 not eat at all, and it was with a troubled mind that 

 I took my departure from them that night. The 

 next morning my fears and doubts were agreeably 

 dissipated, by finding the tin empty. I then found 

 that my charges were nocturnal in their habits. 



Their staple food was a tin of bread and sweet 

 milk, supplied every evening. 



After a short time they left off their shyness, and 

 I could handle them comfortably. One morning I 

 brought home a handful of snails, which I had met 

 with in my rambles and supplied these to them, when 

 immediately they commenced to eat them, shells and 

 all, from which I augured that they had excellent 

 teeth. I next managed to supply them with a few 

 frogs, which they relished exceedingly. I noticed 

 that whenever the frog was put into their cage, 

 the hedgehogs remained perfectly motionless until 

 they got a favourable chance, when they made for one 

 of the frog's hind legs. 



One morning they were near killing a tame black- 

 bird which had inadvertently hopped into their cage, 

 but which was rescued in the very nick of time. 



The place where I kept them was a small loft used 

 by tinsmiths, and I was wont in the summer nights 

 to allow them to ramble about, and the noise that 

 they made scrambling over the cans, &c, after the 

 mice was astonishing. 



Some people suppose that their pace is slow ; the 

 pace of mine was quite the reverse, and they could 

 run along pretty quickly. 



They never hesitated about jumping from a height, 

 in fact one of them deliberately and coolly threw itself 

 down a twelve-foot ladder, bouncing off the steps 

 like an india-rubber ball, and when it reached the 

 bottom was making off, a proceeding which was 

 promptly stopped on my part. 



They were thirsty animals, always drinking when- 

 ever they could, so that I placed water in their cage 

 every morning for their benefit. 



As regards those old-woman stories circulated 

 about the animal, it is needless for me to state that 

 they are all fabrications. One night I gave them 

 apple slices for the express purpose of trying them, 

 and in the morning there was not a tooth print on 

 them, in fact the only fruit mine ate were cherries. 



Another calumny is their eating game birds' eggs. 

 Now, one night I starved mine, giving them only a 

 whole hen egg, and in the morning the egg was 

 perfectly whole, not a bruise or crack on it. 



Mine continued thus in the "even tenor of their 

 way " till the latter end of October, when a change 



was apparent. They got very fat and ate less, and 

 finally went to sleep about November i. I packed 

 them in a box with hay. However one of them 

 escaped and was not found till February 27. They 

 both awoke on March 1, and I may safely say, that 

 the one in the box did not receive a pick of food 

 during the whole four months of hybernation. When 

 they awoke they were very emaciated. 



Their weights before the hybernation were respec- 

 tively, 2lbs. 6oz. and 2lbs. ; after, lib. 90Z. and 

 lib. 8oz. ; having lost 130Z. and 8oz. respectively. 

 During the hybernation they remained rolled up in 

 a ball, and their breathing was very loud and 

 distinct. 



But in a short time they regained their original 

 plumpness, and are now fatter than ever. I am in 

 hopes they will breed this year. 



THE NEW FOREST. 

 By E. D. Marquand. 



{Continued f?-om p. 99.] 



IT is not necessary to speak of the productiveness 

 of the New Forest as an insect-collector's hunt- 

 ing-ground, since it is probably better known to 

 entomologists than to any other class of naturalists. 

 In a given area of country— say twenty miles square 

 — the entomologist has decidedly an advantage over 

 the botanist : the former may work the same district 

 for a lifetime and every year find something new — 

 while the latter has a definite, however extensive, 

 number of plants to discover. Insects move ; plants 

 do not. A dozen close observers possessing the 

 requisite knowledge might catalogue the entire flora 

 of a district — phanerogamic and cryptogamic — in a 

 few years, while the insect fauna would continually 

 be receiving fresh additions from the neighbouring 

 country, and so be practically inexhaustible. Of 

 course, on an island — Guernsey or Jersey, for instance 

 — both classes of naturalists would be on a par. 



About fifty species of butterflies, out of a total of 

 sixty-four for Great Britain, have been taken here, 

 and I am happy to be able to record the occurrence 

 of a very rare species which, as far as my knowledge 

 goes, has not hitherto been taken in the Forest, or in- 

 cluded among its indigenous species. This is the Bath 

 White (Pieris daplidice), a fine specimen of which I 

 captured on June 12, 1876, in an open wood not far 

 from Lyndhurst ; it is now in my cabinet. Singu- 

 larly enough, four days afterwards I saw another 

 specimen in my garden flying to heliotrope ; it 

 alighted two or three times, but as I had no net it 

 escaped. C. edusa was out in great force here in 

 1877; they first appeared on June 4, the date on 

 which they seem to have occurred nearly all over the 

 country. In July they disappeared, and the second 

 brood came out on August 10, continuing till after 

 the middle of October. C. hyale is rare, and so is 



G 2 



