HEDGE HOG. 85 



LETTER XXVII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 

 DEAR SIR, Selkorne, February 22, 1770. 



HEDGE-HOGS 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 man- 

 dible, which is much longer than their 

 lower, they bore under the plant, and 

 so eat the root off upwards, leaving 

 the tuft of leaves untouched. In this 

 respect they are serviceable, as they 

 destroy a very troublesome weed; 

 but they deface the walks in some Hed ge -hog. 



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 hedge-hogs, 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 par- 

 turition : but it is plain that they soon harden ; for these little 

 pigs had such stiff prickles on their backs and sides as would 

 easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled with cau- 

 tion. Their spines are quite white at this age ; and they have 

 little hanging ears, which I do not remember to be discernible 

 in the old ones. They can, in part, at this age draw their skin 

 down over their faces ; but are not able to contract themselves 

 into a ball, as they do, for the sake of defence, when full grown. 

 The reason, I suppose, is, because the curious muscle that enables 

 the creature to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its 

 full tone and firmness. Hedge-hogs make a deep and warm 

 hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal them- 

 selves for the winter : but I never could find that they stored in 

 any winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do.* 



* Few animals are easier to tame than the common European urchin or " hedge-hog" (erinacfus 

 Europcnis), a species common in most parts of the country, and nocturnal, or rather crepuscular, 

 in its habits. Confined in a small garden, or rather enclosure, it only requires to be not tor- 

 mented, and to be fed occasionally from the hand, and it will soon lose its natural timidity, will 

 cease to contract into a ball when gently examined, and allow its manners to be closely and ad- 

 vantageously observed. The first night it will be fo'ihd to have formed itself a retreat, which it 

 mostly resorts to ever after, removing the mould till it can lie with its back level with the surface, 



