HEDGEHOGS. * 109 



LETTEE XXXI. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



Selborne, Feb. 22, 1770. 

 Dea2 Sir, — Hedge-hogs* aboimd in my gardens and 

 fields. The manner in which they eat the roots of the plan- 

 tain in my grass walks is very curions : with their npper 

 mandible, which is much longer than their lower, they bore 

 under the plant, and so eat the root off upwards, leaving the 

 tuft of leaves untouched. In this respect they are service- 

 able, as they destroy a very troublesome weed : but they 

 deface the walks in some measure by digging little round 

 holes. It appears, by the dung that they drop upon the 

 turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of their food. 

 In June last, I procured a litter of four or five young hedge- 

 hogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old ; they, 

 I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when 

 they came to my hands.f No doubt their spines are soft and 

 flexible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would 

 have but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturi- 

 tion : but it is plain that they soon harden ; for these little 

 pigs had such stifi" prickles on their backs and sides, aa 

 would easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled 

 with caution. Their spines are quite white at this age ; 

 and they have little hanging ears, which I do not remember 



* The hedge-hog feeds indiscriminately on flesh and vegetables, is very fond 

 of eggs, doing considerable mischief by destroying game during the breeding 

 seison. It will even enter a hen-house, and, when within its reach, will turn off 

 the hens, and devour the eggs. They are frequently caught in traps, bailed 

 with eggs, for the carrion crows. They are easily tamed, and become very 

 familiar in a state of confinement; will eat bread, potatoes, fruit, flesh — raw 

 or cooked — without any apparent choice. — W. J. They will soon learn to 

 distinguish the person by whom they are fed, and will uncoil themselves at 

 the sound of his voice. — W. C. T. 



t The young are frequently detected and killed by keepers. The incessant 

 cry they make for their mother when hungry, leads to their discovery. I am 

 assured that the old hedge-hogs hunt eagerly for cockchafers which hava 

 dropped from the oaks in Richmond park. — Ed. 



