NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



while the Httle ones eagerly sought for her teats. 

 It was most amusing to watch them trotting after 

 their mother wherever she went, and endeavouring 

 to get a drink. She would bear the pestering for 

 a time, then, growing weary of their attempts to 

 snatch a drink before the regular feeding time, she 

 would roll up, and the youngsters, finding them- 

 selves baffled, also coiled up and slept. After a 

 little while she would poke her head cautiously out, 

 and seeing her children asleep, would steal silently 

 away to hunt in peace for insects in the loose mould 

 in her enclosure. We were in the habit of collect- 

 ing worms and the larvae of various insects and 

 burying them in the loose soil of the Hedgehog's 

 enclosure, in order to study the way they sought 

 them out and devoured them. Hard-shelled insects, 

 such as beetles, were deliberately chewed up, the 

 hard wing, body and leg-cases being broken to tiny 

 fragments by the teeth of the Hedgehog, which 

 are specially adapted for such a diet. Worms 

 and slugs were slowly chewed, first by one set 

 of molars, then by the others, with the greatest 

 deliberation. To test the biting power of the 

 Hedgehog I offered one of my forefingers, which 

 it bit repeatedly, but its teeth failed to penetrate 

 the skin. 



A Hedgehog can fall from a considerable distance 

 on to hard ground without other injury than some 

 broken spines. The instant the creature finds itself 

 falling, its head and hind-feet snap together, join- 



28 



