POISON-RESISTING POWER OF THE HEDGEHOG. 449 
licking the wounded spot once or twice, returned to the charge. At last it sueceeded in 
killing the viper, and, after having done so, ate its vanquished enemy, beginning at the 
tail, and so working upwards. The animal always seems to eat a snake in this fashion, 
and on one occasion was known to proceed with its banquet while the poor snake was 
still living. 
Poisons of all kinds have been tried upon the Hedgehog without the least effect. 
Prussic acid, arsenic, and other deadly substances have been unsuccessfully administered, 
and the animal has been known to make a very satisfactory meal on cantharides without 
experiencing any ill effects from these cauterising insects. How it is that the constitution 
of the creature can resist the effects of such powerful substances is not, as yet, known. 
It is, however, a subject of much interest, and, if it could be elucidated, would probably 
be of inealeulable service to mankind. 
On one oceasion, when a Hedgehog was employed in the demolition of a snake, it 
proceeded in a remarkably cautious manner, as if it had been a practised combatant, and 
had learned how to inflict injury on its foe without suffering in return, On being roused 
by the touch of the snake, the Hedgehog—which had been coiled up—unrolled itself, bit 
the snake sharply, and immediately resumed its coiled attitude. Three times it repeated 
this proceeding, and when after the third bite the snake’s back was bitten through, the 
Hedgehog stood by the side of its victim, and deliberately crushed the snake’s body 
throughout its entire length by biting it at intervals of about half an inch. Having thus 
placed itself beyond the reach of retaliation, it took the tip of the snake’s tail in its 
mouth, began to eat it, and finished the reptile in the course of twenty-four hours. 
The exploits of the Hedgehog in serpent-killing are useful enough in their way, but 
it too often happens that the carnivorous propensities of the animal are exercised upon 
less harmful creatures than vipers or other “vermin.” Indeed, the poultry-fancier and the 
game-preserver have too much reason for ranking the Hedgehog itself under that 
expressive and somewhat comprehensive epithet. Many are the instances on record 
where the creature has been detected in the act of destroying rabbits, poultry, and 
various kinds of game, and has been unexpectedly discovered to have been the per- 
petrator of sundry acts of robbery which had been laid upon the shoulders of the fox, 
the weasel, or the polecat. 
On one occasion, the proprietor of a fine bantam cock was roused by a great 
disturbance in the place where the fowl was kept, and on going down to see what might 
be the matter, found his feathered favourite struggling in the jaws of a Hedgehog, w hich 
had caught it by the leg and would speedily have devoured it had not its owner come, 
happily, 1 to the rescue. Again, no less than fifteen turkey poults had been destroyed in 
the course of a single night, three having been abstracted and the others killed. A 
number of steel-traps were laid around the scene of devastation, and on the following 
morning three male Hedgehogs were found in the traps, having evidently returned for the 
purpose of bringing away the victims of their previous raid. 
All kinds of game fall occasional victims to the Hedgehog’s appetite, and the 
partridge, the hare, and the pheasant seem to suffer equally from the voracity of this 
strange animal. A Hedgehog has been seen in the act of destroying a hare, and had 
inflicted such i injuries that the poor creature died in a very short time after it had been 
rescued from the jaws of its assailant. This circumstance occurred in Cumberland. 
Rabbits, too, are frequently eaten by this animal, and Hedgehogs have several times been 
taken in traps that have been set for other “vermin, ’ and baited with portions of dead 
rabbits. 
That hares, rabbits, and other terrestrial animals should be captured by so apparently 
clumsy an animal as the Hedgehog is sufticiently remarkable, but that the wary pheasant 
and the well-winged partridge should fall victims to the creature is more than singular. 
Yet there are many accredited instances where the Hedgehog has been captured in the very 
act of killing and eating partridges, and has even been killed while the head of a young 
partridge still protruded from its mouth. One of these creatures has been detected in the 
act of eating a hen-pheasant which had been placed in a cage to which it had gained 
access by squeezing itself through a marvellously small aperture. Another pheasant had 
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