THE INSECTIVORA. 



37 



CHAPTER II. THE INSECTIVORA. 



I. The Hedgehog. 



Food. 



The Hedgehog is among the creatures generally reck- 

 oned as vermin of the farm. If any one has just cause 

 of complaint against the hedgehog, it is not the farmer but 

 the gamekeeper, as it has often been taken in traps baited 

 with game-birds or their eggs. 



Its chief food, however, consists of worms and insects, 

 and, when domesticated in the kitchen, it subsists largely 

 on cockchafers. It is also known to attack 

 adders, which lacerate themselves against its 

 armour of spines. 

 At any rate its 

 diet is entirely 

 animal, and White 

 was in error when 

 he endowed it with 

 vegetarian tastes. 

 Its worst offence 

 is a rare raid on 

 the hen-house. 



The most famil- 

 iar habit of the 

 hedgehog is that 



of rolling in a ball when threatened by danger, a special 

 arrangement of the muscles enabling it to assume this re- 



^ . markable position. In this way it is able to 

 Enemies. - . ... 



keep off most of its enemies, including even 



dogs specially trained for its pursuit, but the fox is said to 

 possess the secret of making it unbend by ducking it in 

 some swamp, or by a disgusting process which it is unde- 

 sirable to describe in detail. The badger is also said to be 





