SUNDOWN IN SHOTLEY WOOD 235 



Down again to the boots. The blacking smelt nice, so 

 he gnawed at them steadily, with far more force than 

 might be expected from so small a hedgehog for he 

 was not larger than a cocoa-nut. Having tasted one 

 boot, he then tried the other, and did not take alarm 

 till he was suddenly picked up. Then for a minute he 

 closed his eyes and rolled into a ball. A curious 

 change of expression takes place when the hedgehog 

 draws his heavy eyebrows down. At other times his 

 face is impudent and rather savage. Then he looks 

 meek and gentle, a nice little fellow, who eats bread 

 and milk, and is regarded as a pet for children. 

 Unrolled he is his true self a creature that kills 

 adders, drives the partridge from her nest, and eats the 

 eggs ; a sturdy omnivorous little animal, afraid of few 

 things except a badger. He had not been held a 

 minute before he began to uncurl, wriggled over on 

 to his back, gave the nearest finger a bite which reached 

 through the buckskin glove, dropped on to the ride, 

 and scuffled away among the brambles. By this time 

 it was almost dusk, and the pigeons were arriving in 

 small flocks, and settling into the fir-tops in different 

 parts of the wood. Each flock circled high overhead 

 twice or thrice before alighting. The fieldfares followed, 

 squeaking and chattering from tree to tree, and the 

 cock pheasants went up to roost one by one, telling 

 the whole wood about it. Small woodland birds feed 

 till dark in these short winter days, and a whole flock 

 of tits and bullfinches were climbing and flitting among 

 the ash-poles, eager to use the last minutes of twilight. 



