66 WHITE 



LETTER XXVII 



SELBORNE, Feb. 22nd, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, Hedgehogs abound in my gardens and fields. 

 The manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my 

 grass-walks is very curious ; with their upper mandible, which 

 is much longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and 

 so eat the root off upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. 

 In this respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very 

 troublesome weed ; but they deface the walks in some measure 

 by digging little round holes. It appears, by the dung that they 

 drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of 

 their food. 1 In June last I procured a litter of four or five young 

 hedgehogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old : 

 they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when 

 they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are soft and flex- 

 ible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would have 

 but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturition, but 

 it is plain they soon harden ; for these little pigs had such stiff 

 prickles on their backs and sides as would easily have fetched 

 blood, had they not been handled with caution. Their spines 

 are quite white at this age ; and they have little hanging ears, 

 which I do not remember to be discernible in the old ones. 

 They can, in part, at this age draw their skin down over their 

 faces ; but are not able to contract themselves into a ball, as they 

 do, for the sake of defence, when full grown. The reason, I sup- 

 pose, is, because the curious muscle that enables the creature 

 to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its full tone 

 and firmness. Hedgehogs make a deep and warm hybernac- 

 ulum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves 

 for the winter ; but I never could find that they stored in any 

 winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do. 



I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare 

 (turdus pilaris\ which I think is particular enough ; this bird, 

 though it sits on trees in the day-time, and procures the great- 

 est part of its food from white-thorn hedges ; yea, moreover, 

 builds on very high trees, as may be seen by the fauna suecica ; 

 yet always appears with us to roost on the ground. They are 



