THE HEDGEHOG 



person might conclude it was up to no good, 

 might think it was after the milk, and thus 

 give rise to the foolish tale. It is nearly as 

 bad as the story which gives the nightjar, or 

 goat-sucker, its name. The bird, which flies 

 about hunting moths in an evening, has a very 

 wide beak to enable it to catch the insects, so, 

 in parts of the country where there are goats, 

 the country people imagine that broad gape 

 must be for the purpose of sucking the goats, 

 and so ' goat-sucker ' it is called ! 



Another tale that is sometimes told about 

 the hedgehog is that it will steal apples, sticking 

 them on its spines, and going home to its den 

 with apples all over it ! The persons who tell 

 such stories forget, or rather do not know that 

 this animal is no fruit eater, that under no 

 circumstances will it eat anything of the sort, 

 and that rather than touch an apple it would 

 starve to death. How it is supposed to put 

 the apples on its spines I do not know ; perhaps 

 it is thought to roll about among the fallen 

 apples under the apple-trees until it has a 

 full load ! 



On account of its imaginary crimes the 

 hedgehog has always had a bad time, and in 

 olden days the churchwardens of the different 



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