112 HEDGEHOG. 



tormented me many years, because I knew boggy to be a 

 blood-thirsty poacher, a regular knight-errant for attacking 



unanswerable : what could I reply ? and as for the eggs of game, when he ac- 

 cused the hedgehog of that kind of poaching also, I could not say " Oh no, you 

 are prejudiced there, you have never seen a hedgehog so engaged, and there- 

 fore you may be accusing him of other people's crimes ; indeed, I don't think 

 he likes, or will eat eggs :'' because I had had ample proof that if he spared an 

 egg for three days, it was only because he was unable to get at its contents, 

 and for no other reason whatever ; and because I have no doubt that a par- 

 tridge's egg would be more manageable than a fowl's egg ; and that if the hen 

 partridge should by chance be near, and endeavour to defend her nest, she 

 would be herself demolished by the plunderer, as easily as a ringdove or young 

 turkey. J. C. Atkinson; Hutton, Berwick-on-Tweed!' Zool. 791. 



" With regard to the hedgehog's guilt in devouring eggs of poultry or 

 game, I can only state, that I have several times taken these animals in traps 

 baited with a hen's egg, intended to ensnare carrion crows ; but whether the 

 hedgehogs had walked into the trap inadvertently, or whether they actually 

 wished to obtain possession of the egg, I cannot say. The inference is cer- 

 tainly against them. Archibald Jerdon ; Bonjedward" Zool. 856. 



" That this animal is the subject of some ' vulgar errors,' may be perfectly 

 true ; but that it is carnivorous, I feel absolutely convinced. Many years ago 

 J had opportunities of watching the animal, having captured and kept for a 

 short time several individuals. They fed readily from the very first, and in 

 particular some, to whom it was offered, drank milk from a saucer most gree- 

 dily. The common garden shell-snails appeared very acceptable morsels, being 

 cracked with the utmost ease (if not too large for the mouth), and champed 

 down with the greatest gusto. Mr. Bury expresses a doubt (Zool. 818), whe- 

 ther the hedgehog will eat eggs ; but I would suggest, that his experiment is 

 not conclusive. He states having offered his urchin * a bantam's egg ;' but I 

 believe those eggs have not unfrequently very strong shells ; certainly I have 

 occasionally met with eggs, the shells of which would puzzle a larger animal 

 than the hedgehog not having the TTOV criu> for making the first fracture, nor 

 the power of striking, as a bird, with its beak. If Mr. Bury would select a 

 thin-shelled egg, or one with a cracked shell, perhaps the result would be dif- 

 ferent. To prove the carnivorous propensities of this animal, I may mention 

 two circumstances, not indeed within my own knowledge, but of which I was 

 informed, from an authority to be relied upon. In the first instance, a game- 

 keeper, having for some nights lost one of a brood of pheasants he was rearing 

 under a hen, confined the latter to a corner of the coop, and set a rat-trap, 

 wherein next morning he found a hedgehog ; thus convincing himself, as he 



