THE HEDGEHOG 



stems. What a delight they seem to take in 

 champing up the grubs they find, chewing 

 them with noisy gusto. If you wish to have 

 a tame ' hog ' this is the time to get one, 

 when it is old enough to feed itself, yet not 

 old enough to have learnt fear. A most 

 interesting and charming pet it will make, 

 but there are one or two things of which you 

 must beware the first is to give it a good 

 dusting of insect powder so as to get rid of the 

 undesirable ' company ' of which it is sure to 

 have plenty, and the other is to see it is well 

 and properly fed. It is no good giving a 

 creature, whose natural food is insects and 

 carrion, only bread and milk to eat, nor is it 

 any good turning it loose in a black-beetle 

 haunted kitchen and expecting it to fend for 

 itself. In either case the end will be a speedy 

 death. The hedgehog must be well fed; it 

 may be given bits of flesh, mice, and rats (the 

 latter may want cutting open), earth-worms, 

 and bread and milk, or soaked dog biscuit, now 

 and again. It should always have clean water 

 where it can drink whenever it needs, and the 

 more grub-hunting it can do for itself the better. 

 It should have a good bed of hay or leaves, 

 particularly in the winter, when it must not 



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