HEDGE-HOG. 59 



pheasants' eggs from the road-side and put them under a hen. 

 The coop was placed outside the poultry-yard and near an old 

 summer-house which stood among shrubs, and was thickly 

 covered with creepers. The birds came out in due time, but 

 soon began to disappear. Rats were at first blamed, but as no 

 traces of their presence could be detected, the keeper was set 

 to watch, with the result that Hedge-hogs were proved to be 

 the delinquents. 



A writer in the Field bears testimony to the egg-stealing pro- 

 pensities of these animals. He states that on a certain date there 

 was a duck's nest near his house containing five eggs. " On the 

 following morning," he writes, " there were only two. On the 

 following night I put down a common rabbit-trap at the nest, 

 let into the ground, and covered over. About ten p.m. I heard 

 something crying out (similar to the noise made by a hare 

 when in distress). Upon going there I found a very large 

 Hedge-hog in the trap. I took it out, killed it, and set the 

 trap again. About eleven there was another large Hedge-hog in 

 the same trap, which I killed, and set the trap again. I went 

 again the next morning at five and found another Hedge-hog 

 in the trap, making three Hedge-hogs caught the same night in 

 the same trap. Since then the duck has been sitting in the 

 same nest undisturbed by anything." This evidence, although 

 circumstantial, appears to be pretty conclusive, and it is con- 

 firmed by another instance narrated by the same writer. In 

 this second case a pheasant's nest with fifteen eggs was found 

 to have nine destroyed ; each of the damaged eggs having been 

 apparently bitten half through. The six remaining sound eggs 

 were taken home and a small quantity of strychnine inserted 

 into each through a small perforation, after which they were 

 sealed up and returned to the nest. The next morning two of 

 the eggs were partially eaten, while near by lay a Hedge-hog, 

 stone dead. 



