CRUELTY TO HEDGEHOGS 73 



from appetising. Nevertheless, it is an excel- 

 lent method of cooking a fowl, especially when 

 likely to be tough or insipid, as is the case with 

 the generality of Indian poultry. 



During the winter months the hedgehog lies 

 dormant, eating nothing until the spring is well 

 advanced. Some dogs are very clever in the 

 way they are able to tackle a hedgehog, and I 

 have known them carry it to a pond, drop it in the 

 water, and then, when it has been thus forced to 

 unroll itself, seize and kill it ; but such perform- 

 ances ever afford me far more pain than pleasure, 

 and though fully able to appreciate the pluck of 

 a dog which can seize a hedgehog regardless of 

 the wounds he receives, my sympathies are 

 entirely with the latter animal, which I would 

 ever endeavour to save from destruction or ill 

 usage. 



A hedgehog is by no means an ugly animal ; 

 its bright eye bespeaks no little intelligence, and, 

 as I have remarked, it is very easily tamed ; the 

 pale gray colour of its under parts contrasts 

 pleasingly with the rich brown spines and black 

 feet and muzzle. It is towards the latter part of 

 the summer that these animals are more com- 

 monly to be observed, and at that time they 

 suffer no little persecution at the hands of the 

 village boys, who are far too frequently most 

 brutally cruel to all wild animals. 



At the most, there are but fifty different varie- 

 ties of wild animals in Britain at the present 



