Manchester Memoirs, Vol, Ixiii. (1919) No. 2 1 1 



among the Ancients, of several among the Mediaeval writers quoted? 

 and of Patrick Russell, Blumenbach, Thomas 'Brown, the Russian 

 Pole interviewed by Miss Hibbert-Ware, my gardener (George 

 Franklin), and others among the Moderns, all seem to bring out 

 this point clearly. If this surmise proves to be sound, it remains 

 to be shown why the habits of the Hedgehog should differ so notably 

 in different parts of Europe. 



Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that most modern writers on 

 Mammals, if they refer at all to the old legend, either dismiss it as 

 too absurd to be worth a moment's consideration or, at least, show 

 themselves decidedly sceptical. 



But is the story really so incredible after all ? Are we not apt, in 

 these highly-scientific days, to become too contemptuously sceptical 

 in regard to all ancient legends of the kind, and to forget that, however 

 absurdly improbable they may appear at first sight, not a few of them 

 have been shown to have some genuine basis in fact — often slight, 

 but sufficient to substantiate and justify them. In all such cases, 

 a, cautious scepticism should be, of course, maintained up to a certain 

 point; but I have never forgotten a dictum to which I remember 

 hearing the late Prof. Huxley give utterance many years ago : — >^ 

 " I have always felt [he said] a horror of limiting the possibilities of 

 things." 



Now I will go so far as to say that, on the evidence quoted above, 

 I am ready to believe that the Hedgehog does sometimes carry home 

 fruit stuck upon its spines. There seems to me nothing inherently 

 impossible, or even improbable, about the story ; for animals have 

 been proved capable of many much more extraordinary acts. 



But, before accepting the old legend unreservedly, there is one 

 point which requires first to be considered — Does the Hedgehog ever 

 eat fruit ? 



As to this crucial question, many contradictory opinions have been 

 expressed. The truth seems to be that the creature undoubtedly 

 affects, in the main, an animal diet, consisting chiefly of small reptiles, 

 worms, snails, slugs, insects, beetles, birds' eggs, and the like. In 

 confinement, it will readily eat meat, either cooked or uncooked, 

 bread-and-milk, and many such substances as are usually given to cats 

 and dogs. Its partiality for eggs has gained for it a very bad name 

 among gamekeepers, poultry-keepers, and such people. Macgillivray 

 says* that it will "occasionally even enter hen-houses for the purpose 

 [of stealing them]."t In all probability, however, the robberies of 



* British Quadrupeds, p. 1 19 (1838). 



t Macgillivray does not say, however (as Millais asserts : Matiimals of Gt. Brit, 

 and Ire I., i., p. 117), that the Hedgehog will steal eggs "from beneath the hens, 

 but without otherwise molestine them." 



