42 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



carry off the fruit impaled on its spines ; an idea that 

 probably originated from its accidentally falling on an 

 apple while coiled up, and so going off with it adhering 

 to its back, for the Hedgehog can drop uninjured from a 

 considerable height, the elasticity of the spines breaking 

 its fall. It is certain that it does not eat fruit, or, 

 indeed, vegetable matter of any kind, its food consisting 

 for the most part of worms, slugs, beetles, and young 

 birds ; they are also fond of birds' eggs, and in short will 

 eat any small animal, bird, or reptile that they can 

 manage to kill. They sometimes eat poultry, attacking 

 them at night when asleep on the nest, and putting them 

 to a horrible lingering death by eating into the soft parts 

 of their bodies. The writer has had two hens killed in 

 this way and could not imagine what animal had done 

 the mischief, till he read in the Field, an account of a 

 similar case in which a Hedgehog was the culprit. It 

 is stated on good authority that they will kill and eat 

 snakes and vipers, approaching them with caution, biting 

 them on the neck, and then instantly coiling up. If it is 

 a viper that is thus attacked, it turns on the Hedgehog 

 to bite it (one bite would be fatal), but only succeeds 

 in lacerating itself against the sharp spines, and soon 

 succumbs to its injuries. In captivity the Hedgehog is 

 useful in destroying cockroaches in kitchens, and the 

 writer had one that used to come regularly every night 

 for a saucerful of bread-and-milk. Hedgehogs generally 

 swarm with fleas of a species peculiar to themselves. 

 They rarely come abroad till late at night, but may 

 then be seen running eagerly about poking their sharp 

 snouts under leaves and into crannies in search of worms, 

 etc., and occasionally giving utterance to short grunts 



