422 Practical Game Preserving. 



the rabbit, which it captures continually, and in some 

 numbers. This apparently arduous accomplishment is 

 not by any means so difficult for the hedgehog as we 

 might suppose; for on the even, unresisting surface of 

 pasture fields the prickly animal progresses with ease, 

 silence, and celerity, creeping upon any rabbit which, 

 ignorant of its enemy's presence, is feeding calmly in 

 the field, until with a quick run it seizes the coney, with 

 a vigorous bite kills it, and eats such portion as may seem 

 most delectable. In much the same manner can it capture 

 the hare ; but one would fancy that an animal of this 

 kind could scarcely succeed in successfully attacking birds 

 like the pheasant and partridge, very strong on the wing 

 and remarkably wary, yet on many and varied occasions 

 have both of these birds fallen victims to the exquisite 

 stealth of the vermin we discuss, and it is certain that if 

 the pheasant can be caught by it, all the other game 

 birds are no less likely to be taken. But it is among the 

 young and comparatively helpless birds that the hedgehog 

 chiefly exercises its mischievous intent, and when the 

 nesting time comes round it makes many a hearty meal, 

 no doubt, off pheasant and partridge eggs. 



Not content with so large a scope for satisfying its 

 hunger, the urchin has even a taste for fish, and will 

 often fall a victim to the traps of the game preserver 

 when he baits them with a piece of one of the suc- 

 culent fishes which inhabit our streams and rivers. Nor 

 should the poultry house itself be regarded as free from 

 a marauding visit from the hedge-pig, for, maybe, it may 

 deem a change of diet necessary to the maintenance of its 



