HEDGEHOG 25 



Order INSECTIVORA. 



HEDGEHOG. 



Erinaceus eueop.^us L. 



In spite of the persistent persecution to which it is 

 subjected by gamekeepers in consequence of the occasional 

 plunder of a pheasant's or a partridge's nest, this interesting 

 animal is still common in all but the most unsuitable 

 localities. Many of them come annually under my own 

 notice between April and October — especially in those years 

 when I happen to be much about the woods and hedgerows 

 at night after moths. Some idea of their numbers may be 

 gathered from the fact that a keeper on a small property a 

 few miles south of Edinburgh kills between twenty and 

 thirty annually. I have frequently kept Hedgehogs in 

 confinement, but cannot say that they have always proved 

 " interesting pets." The facility and speed with which they 

 follow up the track of a beetle shows that they possess a 

 very keen scent. Pale or albino examples occur at rare 

 intervals — two (adult and young) belonging to the Earl of 

 Haddington were exhibited at a meeting of the Eoyal 

 Physical Society on 17th February 1885. 



Pennant, in Lightfoot's "Flora Scotica," published in 1792 

 (vol. i., p. 13), says of the Hedgehog — " not found beyond the 

 Tay, perhaps not beyond the Forth ; " but the accuracy of 

 this statement may well be questioned. Sibbald includes the 

 *' Erinaceus" in his "Historia Animalium in Scotia" (1684), 

 "but the few remarks he makes concerning it have reference 



B 



