134 THE WOODLANDS. 



town kitchens, in order that it may war upon the 

 profusion of cockroaches which flourish in those 

 localities. Under such circumstances the Hedgehog 

 is omnivorous. Insects of all kinds, scraps of meat, 

 fragments of cheese, bread, fruits, worms, nothing 

 seems to be refused. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns 

 gives an interesting account of a hedgehog' s meal : 

 " I fell in with one," he says, " in a sheltered part of 

 the garden, which I was enabled to watch unobserved, 

 and which afforded me an opportunity of seeing a 

 little into its habits and mode of feeding. It was 

 creeping up and down a grass walk apparently in 

 busy search for worms. It carried its snout very low,, 

 insinuating it among the roots of the herbage, and 

 snuffing about under the dead leaves which lay about. 

 After a time it commenced scratching at a particular 

 spot, to which it seemed directed by the scent, and 

 drew out a very large worm from just beneath the 

 surface of the ground. This it immediately began to 

 devour, taking it into the mouth by one extremity, 

 and gradually eating its way to the other, an opera- 

 tion which lasted some time, and was attended by an 

 incessant action of the teeth, which grated upon one 

 another with a peculiar noise. After the worm was 

 gone, as I thought, I was surprised to see the whole 

 put out of the mouth again, and, from the appearance 

 of the cast, I was led to believe that it had been only 

 subjected to the action of the teeth, for the purpose 

 of being bruised, and squeezing out the soft internal 

 parts cf the body, which alone were eaten in the first 

 instance ; the skin itself, however, was shortly retaken 

 into the mouth and the whole clean devoured." 



