WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



magpies, stoats, and weasels on the keeper's 

 gibbet. 



It is his pig-like taste for carrion which 

 gets the hedgehog into no end of trouble, 

 and earns him a bad character with those who 

 do not take the trouble to find out if the meat 

 that he eats is of his own killing or was slain for 

 him by some quicker and more nimble animal. 

 Another thing is that the hedgehog's teeth are 

 not fitted for holding and killing big and active 

 creatures. The canines the big long teeth 

 placed near the front of the mouth and of 

 which you can see very good examples if you 

 open the jaws of a dog or a cat are too small 

 in his case to give him a really good grip, though 

 excellent for chewing. The result is that 

 he will go anywhere for carrion, and many a 

 hedgehog has met its fate by wandering into a 

 trap baited with meat. The question of what 

 this animal will and will not eat has been the 

 subject of a good deal of argument between 

 naturalists, some saying that it is very fond 

 of eggs and hunts for those of the birds that 

 make their nests upon the ground. I can 

 only say that I have put eggs into the cage of 

 a captive hedgehog, given it nothing else to 

 eat, and left it for the night, yet the eggs were 



