HIBERNATION OF THE HEDGEHOG, 45] 
and to which he administered a strong potation of sweetened whisky. The experiment 
was not made with any intention of injuring the animal, but for the purpose of testing 
the popular assertion that the creature would thereby be rendered tame. After saying 
that the intoxicating draught soon showed its power on the animal, Dr. Ball proceeds as 
follows :— 
“ HS the beasts that so imdulge, he was anything but himself, and his lack-lustre, 
leaden eye, was rendered still less pleasing by its inane, drunken expression. He staggered 
toy ards: us in a ridiculous, get-out-of-my-way sort of manner; however, he had not gone 
far before his potation produced all its effects — he tottered, then fell on his side ; he was 
drunk in the full sense of the word, for he could not even hold by the ground. We 
cowld then pull him about, open his mouth, twitch his whiskers, &e.—he was unresisting. 
There was a strange expression in his face of that self-confidence which we see in 
cowards when inspired by drinking, 
We put him away, and in some twelve hours afterwards found him running about, 
and, as was predicted, quite tame, his spines lying so smoothly and regularly that he could 
be stroked down the back and handled freely. We turned him into the kitchen to kill 
cockroaches, and know nothing further of him.” 
The home of the Hedgehog is made in some retired and well-protected spot, such as a 
crevice in rocky ground, or under the stones of some old ruin. It greatly affects hollow 
trees, wherever the decayed wood permits it to find an easy entrance, and not uafrequently 
is found coiled up in a warm nest which it has made under the large gnarled roots of 
some old tree, where the rains have washed away the earth and left the roots projecting 
occasionally from the ground. Beside these legitimate habitations, the Hedgehog is 
frequently found to intrude itself upon the homes of other animals, and has been often 
captured within rabbit burrows. Perhaps it may be led to these localities by the double 
motive of obtaining shelter from weather and enemies and of making prey of an occasional 
young rabbit. 
In its retreat the Hedgehog usually passes the winter in that semi-animate condition 
which is known by the name of hibernation. 
The hibernation of the Hedgehog is more complete than that of the dormouse or any 
other of our indigenous hibernating quadrupeds, for they always have a stock of food on 
which they can rely, and of which they sparingly partake during the cold months of the 
year. The Hedgehog, however, lays up no such stores, nor, indeed, could it do so, for, as 
has already been mentioned, its food is almost entirely of an animal nature. 
The hibernation of the Hedgehog has lately been denied, because Hedgehogs are 
occasionally found at large during the winter months. Yet this is no proof to the 
contrary, for it has already been noticed that the bears are occasionally in the habit of 
roaming about during the winter, instead of lying motionless in their dens, as is the 
general custom, yet no one denies the hibernation of the bear in consequence of that 
well-known circumstance. The subject of hibernation has been most elaborately worked 
out by Dr. Marshall Hall, who has published the result of his experiments in “ Todd’s 
Cyclopedia of Anatomy,” and has made many curious observations on the hibernating 
qualities of the animal which is now under consideration. 
In this able dissertation, Dr. Hall warns observers against confounding together the 
torpor which is produced by excessive cold and that peculiar torpid state which is called 
hibernation. Indeed, it is always found that although a Hedgehog, or other hibernating 
animal, will pass into its semi-animate condition at a moderately low temperature, it w ill 
be roused at once by severe cold, and will not again resume its lethargy until the tempera- 
ture be somewhat moderated. “All hibernating animals,” he observes, “avoid exposure 
to extreme cold. They seek some secure retreat, make themselves nests or houses, or 
congregate in clusters, and if the season prove unusually severe, or if their retreat be not 
well chosen, and they be exposed in consequence to excessive cold, many become 
benumbed, stiff, and die.” 
Those who experiment upon so delicate a subject as hibernation must bear this in 
mind, and remember also that the least disquieting of the animal will injure the condition 
under which it sustains its torpidity, even though it should be of so slight a nature as 
GG2 
