THE HEDGEHOG OR URCHIN. 255 



the discovery of the waiting feast. And, having 

 once feasted, the animal would undoubtedly profit 

 by the experience, and thereafter search diligently 

 for similar banquets. 



Many naturalists are of the opinion that hedge- 

 hogs feed largely on the eggs of ground-breeding 

 birds during the spring of the year, but this is 

 evidently a case of individual acquirement. Where 

 many ground-birds nest, the hedgehogs soon dis- 

 cover that nest-hunting is a profitable business, 

 but where such nests are comparatively rare the 

 animals do not seem to learn their value. I have, 

 for example, known tree and meadow pipits to 

 rear their young successfully in a bank which a 

 whole family of hedgehogs were in the habit of 

 parading nightly for food. I have also seen a 

 conspicuous pied wagtail triumphantly bring off 

 its family affairs in a kitchen-garden within the 

 confined limits of which a hedgehog was imprisoned. 

 These facts would seem to indicate that egg- 

 hunting is an acquired art in the case of the 

 hedgehog, just as it is in the case of the squirrel. 



I believe, on the other hand, that hedgehogs 

 destroy quite a number of fledglings of all kinds 

 that have just left the nest to sally forth on their 

 first perilous voyage of discovery ; but it is futile to 

 condemn the creature on these grounds when the 

 ' tame ' cats of our own households accomplish more 

 destruction in this direction within three days than 

 a wild hedgehog does in a year ! Indeed, we are 

 only too apt energetically to persecute some 

 creature of the wild for sins which we somehow 

 overlook in our own domestic felines ; and practi- 

 cally every crime for which wild creatures are 

 destroyed, resulting in the total extermination of 

 not a few, is perpetrated by the cat which hunts 



