1902-1903-] The Hedgehog. 37 



statements made in the article and letters referred to, as to 

 some of the traits of this quaint night-pig, should be accepted 

 with the proverbial grain of salt. That stoats will open and 

 make a meal of a hedgehog I do not believe. Some years 

 ago I shut a stoat and a hedgehog together in a large cage. 

 The result was that I took the hedgehog out the follow- 

 ing morning uninjured. Trying the same experiment with 

 a large rat, they shortly seized each other and rolled over 

 and over, struggling for the mastery. The rat was the 

 aggressor, but the stoat was the victor. The same remark 

 in regard to the stoat applies to the horned owl, — in this 

 country, at least. I have lived where horned owls and 

 hedgehogs are numerous, but that the one preyed upon the 

 other I never had the slightest suspicion, and do not 

 believe. 



The story of foxes rolling hedgehogs to water and seizing 

 them while struggling may, in the absence of positive proof, 

 be safely consigned to the region of romance. As to hedge- 

 hogs rolling on fruit and carrying it off on their spines, I 

 have yet to be convinced. The so-called gipsy-cooking recipe 

 of hedgehogs — viz., to cover them with a paste of clay and 

 roast them — is an old one ; but I have never been able to 

 verify a single instance of roasted hedgehog being included 

 in the gipsy bill of fare. The flesh of the hedgehog may 

 be " very delicate," as asserted by one of the correspondents of 

 the ' Scotsman,' but vinless he has actually tried it, of what 

 use is his testimony ? Other writers assert that " their flesh 

 is not good for food." This, however, I will venture to say, 

 that the smell of hedgehogs must in some way be akin to 

 the scent of game, as I have seen pointers and setters stand 

 as staunch as if a covey of grouse or partridges had been a 

 few yards from their nose. The hedgehog is classed among 

 the Insectivora, though, as is well known, it is passionately 

 fond of flesh and eggs. In the suburbs of Edinburgh the 

 hedgehog is far from being scarce. Again and again have 

 I dissected them and examined the contents of their stomach, 

 but I have never found it contain any vegetable matter. At 

 the same time, I have no desire to dogmatically assert that 

 they do not eat fruit, but in all those I dissected I found the 

 stomachs full of beetles only. Hedgehogs get credit for de- 



