1 902-1903.] The Hedgehog. 39 



observation. It would be superfluous to recapitulate what I 

 wrote in a book on sport some years ago as to hedgehogs 

 killing domestic poultry while acting the part of foster- 

 mothers to young pheasants in coops. I there recorded that 

 on several occasions hedgehogs entered coops in the dark- 

 ness, killed the hens, and in some cases tore off their heads 

 and disembowelled them. 



The hedgehog displays great cunning in the concealment of 

 her young. Should they be discovered when newly born and 

 the nest tampered with, the mother never returns, but leaves 

 them to perish. If young are produced in confinement, the 

 mother sometimes devours them, as is frequently done by 

 other animals. Such, at least, was my experience with one 

 that gave birth in these circumstances. On another occasion 

 I found a large female in the first week of June, and had her 

 turned out in the high-walled garden of a neighbour, knowing 

 from experience that my own garden would not keep her in. 

 In a few days she produced her young, but unfortunately the 

 curiosity of two boys was so strong that they searched for 

 and found the nest. It contained three young ones, which I 

 observed were born blind. They were of a whitish -blue 

 colour, and their spines, though formed, were quite dumpy, 

 white, and flexible. I had the little helpless creatures put 

 back in the nest, but the following day they were all dead, 

 the mother having evidently deserted them. When a few 

 weeks old and able to travel, the instinct of the hedgehog 

 accords with that of the fox, which never fails to remove her 

 young so soon as she knows that her hiding-place has been 

 discovered. 



It has been said that hedgehogs are poison-proof, but this 

 I do not believe. Prussic acid at once proved fatal, and I 

 should not value the life of a hedgehog very highly after it 

 had swallowed half a grain of strychnine. 



It is a never-failing law of nature that, in all circumstances, 

 animals are largely endowed with the instinct of self-preserva- 

 tion. While the lion trusts to its strength, the fox to its 

 cunning, and the hare to its swiftness, the precautions of the 

 hedgehog for its safety are of a very different character : it 

 relies entirely on its spines. On the approach of danger 

 it never attempts to get out of the way, but puts itself 



