British Wild Beasts. i8l 



sometimes a squeak — "the hedge-pig's whining" of the 

 witches on the heath. It is supposed also to foretell the 

 changes of weather (as indeed nearly all animals do to the 

 careful observer), and so we meet with lines, " as hedgehogs 

 doe foreshew ensuing storms," "observe what way the 

 hedgehog builds her nest." That it had the power of 

 shoeing its quills off at pleasure is a popular tradition of 

 wide prcTalence. Thus in " Hiawatha " — 



" From a hollow tree the hedgehog 

 With his sleepy eyes looked at him. 

 Shot his shining qaills like arrows ; 

 Saying, with a drowsy mmrnm*, 

 Through the tangle of his whiskers. 

 Take my quills, O Hiawatha ! " 



Though Drayton speaks of "conies" being "banisht 

 quite from every fertile place," they have since then become 

 a tolerably " common object of the country." Few poets, 

 therefore, describing a rural scene, omit this pretty and 

 familiar incident of 



" Bobbing rabbits. 

 Their white tails glancing." 



" The upright rabbit, where he sits and mocks yon, 

 Ere he deigns to hide." 



" The Uttle noises fiang. 

 Out of clefts where rabbits play." 



Clare is especially full of " coy " and " scouting " * and 

 "quirking" rabbits ; his poems are a regular warren. 



" I love to peep out on a summer's mom. 



Just as the scouting rabbit seeks her shed. 

 And the coy hare squats nestling in the com, 

 Frit at the bowed ear tott'ring o'er her head." 



Somerville and his contemporaries call them "dodging" 

 * An epithet used by Bloom£eId and Grahame also. 



