446 THE HEDGEHOG. 
Hedgehoe’s skin upon the calf’s muzzle, so that when it goes to suckle its mother it 
causes such invitation that she will not permit her offspring to approach, and drives it 
away as often as it attempts to effect its purpose. It is also used in order to cure carriage- 
horses of the troublesome habit of “bering” to one side while being driven, for when 
fixed on the pole or the traces it gives the “animal such effectual reminders whenever it 
begins to “bore,” that it soon learns to pull straight, and thus to avoid the unpleasant 
aids to memory that bristle at its side. Even to scientific pursuits the Hedgehoe’s quills 
are made to render its services, being used as pins whereby certain anatomical prepara- 
tions are displayed in spirits of wine, and which are not hable to that provoking rust 
which is so apt to attack metallic pins when immersed in spirits, and which often render 
the most elaborate dissections perfectly useless. 
Another purpose to which the Hedgehoe’s skin was formerly applied was the hackling 
of hemp before it was made up into coarse cloth. This custom was followed by the 
ancient Romans, but is now obsolete, being superseded by artificial instead of natural 
combs. 
The under surface of ‘the body, together with the limbs, is covered with long bristles 
and undulating soft hair, which passes rather abruptly into the stiff quills that defend the 
ae and is so long that it almost conceals the limbs when the animal is walking on 
level ground. In the adult animal the quills are hard and shining, they thickly cover r the 
entire back and top of the head, and are of a greyish-white colour, diversified with a 
ackish-brown ring near the middle. In the young animal, however, the spines are 
comparatively few in number, very soft in ld and nearly w ‘hite in colour, so that for 
the first few days of their life the little creatures look like balls of white hair. 
The tail of the adult Hedgehog is scarcely visible, being hidden by the bristling quills, 
which exceed its length by nearly one-fourth. In the young animal, however, the tail is 
apparent enough, as there are, as yet, no quills to conceal it, and it is carried nearly in a 
line with the leneth of the body. The total length of a full-grown Hedgehog is rather 
more than ten inches, the length of the tail being only three-quarters of an inch, and that 
of the head three inches. The ears are moderately long in their dimensions, being about 
an inch in leneth. 
The young of the Hedgehog are born about May, and are so unlike the parents that 
they have been mistaken for young birds by inexperienced observers. It is a very 
singular fact, and one which is almost if not entirely unique, that not only are they born 
with their eyes closed, as is the case with kittens, puppies, and many other animals, but 
with their ears closed also. The soft white quills, which present so curious an appearance 
as they lie upon the transparent pink skin, very soon begin to deepen in their colour, and 
to increase in number, so that about the end of August the little animals resemble their 
parents in everything but size. The number of young which are produced at a birth is 
from three to four. 
The nest in which the little Hedgehogs are produced and nurtured is most ingenious 
in its structure, being so admirably woven of moss and similar substances, and so well 
thatched with leaves that it will resist the effects of the violent showers that generally 
fall during the spring, remaining perfectly dry in the midst of the sharpest rain. 
Marching securely under the guardianship of its thorn-spiked armour, the Hedgehog 
recks little of any foe save man. For, with this single exception, there are, in our land at 
least, no enemies that need be dreaded by so well-protected an animal. Dogs, foxes, and 
cats are the only creatures which possess the capability of killing and eating the 
Hedgehog, and of these foes it is very little afraid. For dogs are but seldom abroad at 
night while the He dgehog is engaged in its nocturnal quests after food; and the fox 
would not be foolish enough to waste its time and prick its nose in weary endeavours to 
force its intended prey out of its defences. Cats, too, are even less adapted to such a 
proceeding than dogs and foxes. 
It is indeed said that the native cunning of the fox enables it to overreach the 
Hedgehog, and to induce it to unroll itself by an ingenious, but, I fear, apocryphal process. 
Reynard is said, whenever he finds a coiled-wp Hedgehog, to roll it over and over with his 
paw towards some runnel, pond, or puddle, and then to souse it unexpectedly into the 
