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LETTER XXVII. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Feb. ^^nd, 1770. 



EAR SIR, Hedgehogs abound in my gardens 

 and fields. The manner in which they eat the 

 roots of the plantain in my grass-walks is very 

 curious ; with their upper mandible, which is 

 much longer than their lower, they bore under 

 the plant, and so eat the root off upwards, leaving 

 the tufts of leaves untouched. In this respect 

 they are serviceable, as they destroy a very troublesome weed ; but 

 they deface the walks in some measure by digging little round holes. 

 It appears, by the dung that they drop upon the turf, that beetles 

 are no inconsiderable part of their food. In June last I procured a 

 litter of four or five young hedgehogs, which appeared to be about 

 five or six days old ; they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and 

 could not see when they came to my hands. No doubt their 

 spines are soft and flexible at the time of their birth, or else the 

 poor dam would have but a bad time of it in the critical moment of 



