194 TUANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OK GLASGOW. 



brought it immediately to a stand. If there was 

 no appearance of immediate danger, and a conveni- 

 ent retreat was at hand, it made all possible speed 

 to get under cover ; but the moment it was brought 

 face to face with danger, flight was abandoned, and 

 the curled attitude assumed which presented its 

 bristling armature all round. I had a box made 

 for it, full of soft hay, and with an opening for an 

 entrance like that of a dog house ; and the animal 

 soon took to its new quarters. The box was kept in 

 the kitchen ; and the hedgehog used to come out at 

 night, after we were in bed, and go back and for- 

 ward for an hour or two at a time, along the lobby 

 between the kitchen and the parlour — a distance of 

 about fifteen or sixteen feet. We knew when it 

 was afield by hearing its feet pattering on the floor. 

 What was remarkable in this case was that during 

 these night-wanderings it did not seem to be con- 

 stantly on the hunt, as the footmarks showed that 

 it had kept on the same path, backward and for- 

 ward, for a long time ; and the discoloration made 

 on the track along which it had run showed that 

 something had oozed from its feet as it trod along. 

 From this we may understand how dogs can so 

 well follow^ the trail of such animals, and that the 

 sense of smell must be very acute to enable the 

 dog to find its master by the odour left in the print 

 of his shoe. 



I had often heard it stated that hedgehogs were 

 fond of fruit, and that they were able not onU' to 

 climb fruit trees in gardens and throw the apples 

 down, but to roll themselves on the fallen fruit 

 until their sharp sj)ines had got covered with apples, 

 which were carried off to their nest. I accordingly 

 tried my pet with apples, but it would not taste 

 them. It fed on sweet milk, but seemed to relish 

 insects most. When it came to a shoe, or any such 

 object on the floor, it tumbled it over and searched 

 beneath with great eagerness, no doubt in hope of 

 finding insects. When a fly chanced to be on the 



