HEDGEHOG 25 



ORDER INSECTIVOEA. 



HEDGEHOG. 

 ERINACEUS EUKOP^US L. 



IN spite of the persistent persecution to which it is 

 subjected by gamekeepers in consequence of the occasional 

 plunder of a pheasant's or a partridge's nest, this interesting 

 animal is still common in all but the most unsuitable 

 localities. Many of them come annually under my own 

 notice between April and October especially in those years 

 when I happen to be much about the woods and hedgerows 

 at night after moths. Some idea of their numbers may be 

 gathered from the fact that a keeper on a small property a 

 few miles south of Edinburgh kills between twenty and 

 thirty annually. I have frequently kept Hedgehogs in 

 confinement, but cannot say that they have always proved 

 " interesting pets." The facility and speed with which they 

 follow up the track of a beetle shows that they possess a 

 very keen scent. Pale or albino examples occur at rare 

 intervals two (adult and young) belonging to the Earl of 

 Haddington were exhibited at a meeting of the Eoyal 

 Physical Society on 17th February 1885. 



Pennant, in Lightfoot's "Flora Scotica," published in 1792 

 (vol. i., p. 13), says of the Hedgehog " not found beyond the 

 Tay, perhaps not beyond the Forth ; " but the accuracy of 

 this statement may well be questioned. Sibbald includes the 

 " Erinaceus " in his "Historia Animalium in Scotia" (1684), 



but the few remarks he makes concerning it have reference 



B 



