14 Christy, The Ancient Legend as to the Hedgehog 



[There is yet another legend pertaining to the Hedgehog (and 

 ahnost as ancient and wide-spread as the fruit-carrying legend) — 

 namely, that it sucks the milk of cows grazing in the fields. 



Now, this statement, in the crude form in which it is usually made 

 and understood, is a manifest impossibility. In the first place, no 

 Hedgehog, by stretching up, would be able to reach the teats of any 

 cow of ordinary stature ; and, even if it could do so, the fact remains 

 that the Hedgehog's mouth is far too small to allow it to suck milk 

 effectively from the teats of any such cow. 



Nevertheless, the legend in question is probably true in a way, and 

 there is, I think, a perfectly natural explanation as to its origin. 



We know well, from the evidence of Hedgehogs kept in confinement, 

 that • the animal, is exceedingly fond of milk ; and there can be no 

 possible doubt that, in a state of nature, it would take every oppor- 

 tunity to secure milk. Obviously it could do this only when a cow 

 was lying down. In such case, as is well known, milk often runs from 

 the teats of a milch cow; and there can be little or no doubt, I think, 

 that the milk-sucking legend has originated in the fact of a Hedgehog 

 having been seen sucking drops of milk from the teats of a recumbent 

 cow or from the ground immediately after she has risen.] 



For help and advice, I am specially indebted to the following, as 

 well as to others already mentioned : — Dr. Andrew Clark, Mr. A. H. 

 Cocks, Mr. J. Edmund Harting, and Mr. Charles Oldham. 



