HEDGEHOGS SUCKING COWS. 



THE belief so deeply implanted in the rustic 

 mind of hedgehogs sucking cows is as groundless 

 as that of the blindworm being poisonous, or the 

 toad spitting venom. As your correspondent W. H. 

 Hill remarks, the mouth of the hedgehog is cer- 

 tainly unfitted for sucking the teats of a cow or 

 any other large animal, as the sharply-pointed 

 incisor teeth would cause immediate uneasiness. 

 I have examined hedgehogs' tongues, and can find 

 no trace of any apparatus for puncture and suction. 

 Though hedgehogs cannot suck cows, common pigs 

 often do, and are frequently great sources of annoy- 

 ance to the cattle when confined in the same 

 inclosures. As to rustic ideas of natural history, 

 I may mention that a worthy yokel in Hertford- 

 shire informed me, on one occasion, " That he 

 knowed a man wot was bit in the 'and by one 

 of the effet things, and he swelled up loike, 

 hall hover/' On inquiring into the case more 



