254 THE HEDGEHOG OR URCHIN. 



caught the murderer walking about with a litter 

 of rabbit -down and other nesting materials en- 

 tangled in his quills. 



To sum up, then, the hedgehog is among the 

 most potent of the rabbit's foes. True that it 

 takes only the very young, before the merciless 

 weeding-out process has had time to operate, and 

 that many of the rabbits the hedgehog destroys 

 would be destroyed in other ways ere they became 

 adult ; yet the hedgehog takes not merely one or 

 two, but the whole family. Many may consider, 

 however, that the keeping down of the rabbit 

 population, combined with the hedgehog's un- 

 doubted effectiveness as a devourer of noxious 

 insects, is an argument which pleads for the 

 animal's preservation. 



ON THE GAME-RESERVE. 



From the point of view of the farmer the hedge- 

 hog is of unquestionable service to man ; but, 

 unhappily, the activities of this creature are not 

 limited to the destruction of mice, insects, and 

 rabbits. On the game-reserve the hedgehog does 

 little good, while it is capable of doing a great 

 deal of harm. 



So far as my own experience goes, I have never 

 found striking evidence of the hedgehog's destruc- 

 tiveness to game-birds, but weightier opinions than 

 mine amply warrant the condemnation. It is 

 conceivable that a hedgehog, finding a pheasant's 

 nest, would be attracted to it in just the same way 

 as it is attracted to a rabbit's nest. The idea of 

 devouring the clutch would not necessarily be the 

 initial impulse ; the hedgehog would first be 

 drawn by the warmth and comfort suggested by 

 the nest, and from this it is but a short step to 



