OF 8KLUORNF. 13L 



LETTER XXVII. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, Feb. 22, 1770. 



HEDGEHOGS 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 on" 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 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 1 . In June last I procured a litter of 

 four or five young hedgehogs, which appeared to be 



1 Hedgehogs have now become so well known in the metropolis on 

 account of their insectivorous propensities, that they are offered for sale 

 at those markets which are supplied by the country people with vege- 

 tables. The lower parts of many of the houses in London are overrun 

 by black beetles to such an extent as to render it necessary to apply 

 some means of diminishing the numbers of these disagreeable intruders ; 

 and among the modes that have been resorted to for the purpose of 

 destroying them, the introduction of a hedgehog into the kitchen is one 

 of the most effectual. For the support of the animal, in addition to the 

 beetles which it devours, a little bread and milk is requisite ; and it is very 

 fond of picking bones. In such circumstances a hedgehog has occasionally 

 become in some degree domesticated; and its familiarity has been carried 

 to the extent of allowing itself to be handled, especially by children, and 

 to be lifted from the ground by its spines, without attempting to coil 

 itself up into its usual ball-like posture of defence : a form which it 

 would immediately assume when touched by a stranger. It would run 

 too after its little playmates ; and when excluded from the room in 

 which they were, would scratch at the door as if to ask admittance 

 among them. In the instance especially referred to the little creature 

 was on one occasion missing for six weeks ; and, on recovering from its 

 long nap, resumed at once its accustomed habits, the usual scratching at 

 the door being the first notice given of the return of the long lost pet. 

 Eventually it was excluded altogether from society, and was closely 

 confined ; when it refused its food and died. E. T. B. 



