130 THE HEDGEHOG. 



agile movements. Thus everything combines to 

 render the marten a very destructive creature. It 

 seems to have a great dislike to cold, residing in 

 winter in the hollow of some tree, deeply imbedded 

 in dry foliage, and when in confinement, covering 

 and hiding itself with all the warm materials it 

 can find. In genial seasons it will sleep by day 

 in the abandoned nest of the crow or buzzard, 

 and its dormitory is often discovered by the chat- 

 tering and mobbing of different birds on the tree. 

 It is certainly not numerous in England, our 

 woods being too small, and too easily penetrated, 

 to afford it adequate quiet and shelter. Its skin 

 is still in some little request, being worth about 

 two shillings and sixpence in the market ; but it is 

 used only for inferior purposes, as the furs of 

 colder regions than ours are better, and more easily 

 obtained. 



Notwithstanding all the persecutions from pre- 

 judice and wantonness to which the hedgehog 

 (erinaceus europceus) is exposed, it is yet common 

 with us ; sleeping by day in a bed of leaves and 

 moss, under the cover of a verv thick bramble or 

 furze-bush, and at times in some hollow stump of 

 a tree. It creeps out in the summer evenings ; 

 and, running about with more agility than its dull 

 appearance promises, feeds on dew-worms and 

 beetles, which it finds among the herbage, but 

 retires with trepidation at the approach of man. 

 In the autumn, crabs, haws, and the common 

 fruits of the hedge, constitute its diet. In the 



