JULY 117 



passing along the outside of this fence, found a full- 

 grown hedgehog suspended from the topmost wire by 

 a hind leg which had got jammed between the wire 

 and the netting. The poor creature was alive, but the 

 leg was badly broken in compound fracture. It was 

 brought home and carefully tended, but did not long 

 survive. 



Now there are only two ways of explaining the 

 mishap to this hedgehog. One can hardly believe that 

 even the most thoughtless of schoolboys can have had 

 the barbarity to place the animal in the position in 

 which it was found. Yet if a human was not con- 

 cerned therein, one is forced to the conclusion that the 

 hedgehog was climbing the vertical wire-netting when 

 its leg got caught in the wire, and was broken when the 

 creature fell. That this is what really happened seems 

 likely from the escape of the others from our garden. 



XXIX 



The domestic economy of a pair of swallows that 

 chose the porch of my house as a nesting- Swallows 

 place has been a source of considerable Martins 



, . . and Swifts 



interest to our youngsters during the summer. 



The resolute patience of these birds was put to severe 

 test by the diligence of an excellent housemaid, who, 

 to avert the mess inseparable from rearing a brood of 

 nestlings, pulled down the half-finished nest four times. 

 Each time the little architects set to work again from 

 the foundation ; the fifth time I interposed to allow 

 them to put through the job. Incubation followed in 

 due course, and four young swallows were successfully 



