WITH REFERENCE TO HORTICULTURE. 



121 



garden. Ordinary, and of little cost, are the apartments required for it. A 

 cart-load of rough stones, or of damaged bricks, heaped up in some seques- 

 tered corner, free from dogs, will be all that it wants for a safe retreat and a 

 pleasant dwelling. Although the weazel generally hunts for food during the 

 night, still it is by no means indolent in the day-time, if not harassed by 

 dogs or terrified with the report of guns." (Essays, &c. p. 302.) The otter, 

 which inhabits the banks of rivers, lakes, and marshes, swims and dives with 

 great facility, and is destructive to fish, on which it preys. The fox and the 

 wild cat prey on birds and small quadrupeds. The domestic cat is too well 

 known and too useful where rats, mice, or birds are to be deterred or de- 

 stroyed, to require further notice : but where birds are to be preserved or 

 encouraged, cats are their greatest enemies. "Cats amongst birds," Mr. Water- 

 ton observes, " are like the devil amongst us : they go up and down seeking 

 whom they may devour. A small quantity of arsenic, about as much as the point 

 of your penknife will contain, rubbed into a bit of meat, either cooked or raw, 

 will do their business effectually ." The mole (Talpa europaesaZ,.) burrows 

 beneath the surface, but never to a great depth, throwing up hillocks at in- 

 tervals. It feeds on worms and the larvae of insects, and, according to some, 

 on roots. It breeds twice a year, in spring and autumn ; and as it carries 

 on its operations chiefly in the night-time, the runs and hills may be watched 

 early in the morning, and the animals dug out wherever they give signs of 

 movement. They may also be taken by traps, of which there are several 

 kinds ; or poisoned by putting a little arsenic in worms, or in pieces of 

 meat ; or by the use of nux vomica. They may also be caught by sinking 

 in their runs narrow-mouthed vessels of water, into which the animals will 

 descend to drink without being able to get out again ; or these vessels may 

 have false covers similar to those set in the runs of rats. The shrew (orex 

 .Z/.), of which there are three species, inhabits gardens, fields, and hedge- 

 rows, and preys on insects, and also on vegetable substances. It may be 

 caught by a water-trap in the same 

 manner as the mole, or by an inverted 

 flower-pot sunk in the soil, and slightly 

 covered with litter or leaves, fig. 10, or 

 subdued by employing some of its natu- 

 ral enemies. The hedgehog ( JS'rinaceus 

 L.) resides in hedges, thickets, &c., re- 

 maining concealed in the day-time, but 

 coming abroad at night in quest of 



worms, Snails, slugs, and even frogs and Fig. 10. Inverted flower-pot, for catching mice. 



snakes. It also lives on roots and fruits. Hedgehogs are occasionally kept 

 in gardens for destroying frogs, toads, lizards, snails, slugs, and worms ; and 

 in kitchens, for devouring beetles, cockroaches, woodlice, and other terrestrial 

 insects. Care is requisite, however, that they are not annoyed by cats, 

 which, though they cannot devour them, will, if not prevented, soon force 

 them to quit a habitation which is not natural to them. The spines of the 

 hedgehog are soft at its birth, and all inclining backwards ; but they become 

 hard and sharp in twenty-four hours. The bat, of which there are several 

 species indigenous, lives entirely on insects caught on the wing. It forms 

 the natural food of the owl. The dog, which belongs to this order, is well 

 known in gardens and country residences for his property of watching and 

 attacking rats and other vermin. 



