HABITS OF A HEDGEHOG IN DOMESTICATION. 195 



floor the hedgehog never seemed to see it until it had 

 approached within a distance of about four inches. 

 Quick as the fly is in its movements, 1 never sa-w 

 the hedgehog miss one when it had made the bound. 

 I have seen flies Avithin seven or eiglit inches of the 

 hedgehog's nose, without the animal showing the 

 least appearance of having seen them, which led me 

 to think that it did not see to any great distance. 

 When it got hold of a cockroach, it would eat it 

 up bit by bit, not letting the least morsel drop from 

 its small mouth. 



It became less shy by degrees, and finally got so 

 tame as to allow itself to be stroked. When on its 

 feet, with its spines down, it felt quite smooth to the 

 touch. When I happened to fall asleep at the 

 fireside, as I sometimes did in the evening, it would 

 come and take hold of the heel of my stocking ; and 

 although I never alloAved its teeth to reach the skin, 

 yet it always wakened me when it took hold. On one 

 occasion, when I felt it at my heel, I threw my foot 

 suddenly up ; and as the hedgehog's teeth had got 

 caught in the wool of the stocking, it was thrown a 

 considerable distance across the floor. 



We had never seen its droppings about the house, 

 and often wondered where they could be disposed 

 of. I had a quantity of fossils and other mineral 

 specimens laid on the floor of a wall -press in a 

 small room not much used except as a store for 

 such objects. One day I went to look at some of my 

 fossils, and, to my disgust, found them covered with 

 filth, and the floor wet below — the stench, when the 

 stones were turned over, being intolerable. Can this 

 be the natural habit of the animal? Dogs and cats 

 can be trained to such habits, but the hedgehog had 

 never been put under any such discipline by me. The 

 whole house was searched for other deposits of a 

 like kind, but none were found. After this discovery, 

 the poor hedgehog, for no fault of her own, had 

 to quit her domestic quarters. 



