252 THE HEDGEHOG OR URCHIN. 



when it is to be seen abroad by day are either 

 during frosty weather, when food is scarce and 

 the animal is hard put to it to pick up a living, 

 or while it is suffering from the effects of an injury. 

 The hedgehog's method of hunting is most re- 

 markable for its entire lack of systematic quarter- 

 ing. Hither and thither the creature goes, as 

 regardless of direction as a clockwork mouse. 

 Now he heads north at quite a sprint, then turns 

 west for no apparent reason at all ; veering south, 

 he noses under a dock, then continues east till his 

 progress is barred by a wall. All the time he 

 is munching steadily and noisily, consuming an 

 enormous number of insects ; and in this way he 

 rids the land of many troublesome pests. Bats 

 and swallows hawking for insects are, of course, 

 equally erratic in their movements, so the ap- 

 parent want of system of the hedgehog is quite 

 excusable on the same grounds. If one keeps 

 quite still, the animal will, when hunting thus, 

 come right up to one's feet, which he seems to 

 regard as a natural feature of the landscape. 



As RABBIT-KILLER. 



A hedgehog will eat anything it can catch and 

 hold ; nor is it particular as to its method of 

 killing. It is regularly guilty of robbing the 

 rabbit-catcher's snares, and thereby often brings 

 destruction upon its own head. The rabbit fast 

 in a snare that is discovered by a hedgehog must, 

 indeed, experience a bad time of it, for, like all 

 animals that are not among the true killers, the 

 hedgehog has no idea of inflicting a merciful end. 



Hedgehogs destroy quite a considerable number 

 of young rabbits ; but I think the animal's love of 

 warmth, and its habit of creeping into any snug 



