190 A COUNTRY READER. 



and they are usually born during the months of 

 May, June, or July. 



Hedgeliog. When danger is near, the hedge- 

 hog, as you know, as a means of defence, tucks 

 its head away and rolls itself into a ball, which is 

 covered all over with hard, piercing prickles. It 

 takes a dog " well up to the dodge " to cause the 

 hedgehog to unroll itself so that it can be killed. 



The hedgehog goes on the hunt in the evening, 

 and during the day it sleeps in its hiding-place, 

 which hiding-place is usually by the side of a 

 ditch or hedge or under a heap of brushwood. 



It preys very largely on field voles, sometimes 

 on eggs and small birds, lizards, grass snakes, 

 adders, frogs, cockchafers and their larvae, field 

 snails, earth worms, and sometimes for a change 

 on fruit and juicy plant roots. 



Bats. It may surprise you to read that the 

 bats which you so often see flying about so noise- 

 lessly of an evening come under the heading wild 

 animals. 



If you could dissect a bat you would find that 

 the fore limbs, instead of being used for walking 

 and running, have been converted into a flying 

 apparatus. 



You would see also that the bones of the fore- 

 arms are of great length, and between the very 

 long fingers and between the fore and hind limbs, 

 and also between the two hind limbs, there is 



