262 THE HEDGEHOG OR URCHIN. 



a dog of good mettle, that has been badly pricked 

 by a hedgehog, develops a spite against the breed, 

 and thereafter kills every one it finds. I possessed 

 one dog that must have killed hundreds during its 

 life, for whenever it was taken into the woods it 

 would seek out one or more of these creatures, and 

 never rest till its purpose was achieved. Nor could 

 the dog be broken off this bad habit. 



Apparently the hedgehog has no fixed moulting 

 season ; new quills are always growing and old 

 ones being shed. As the animal ages, the quills 

 become very stiff and strong, and turn grayish in 

 colour. A young hedgehog is generally brown, 

 an old one yellowish-gray, the quills being more 

 distinctly barred than in youth. 



ENEMIES. 



Other than man and his dogs, the hedgehog's 

 enemies are few. Among the birds of the air it 

 has none, which appears to be amply proved by 

 the fact that it seems quite incapable of looking 

 up. Foxes destroy a few hedgehogs, but not 

 many. During a hard winter a fox will scratch 

 out a hibernating hedgehog and devour it, leaving 

 only the skin ; but such is the discomfort of the 

 proceeding that Reynard leaves the urchin alone 

 unless the stern alternatives be urchin or starvation. 

 On one occasion a river-keeper reported to me the 

 finding of the empty skin of a hedgehog among 

 some rocks near an otter's den. In all probability 

 the otter killed it. The pine-marten, though rare, 

 is, with the polecat, the most deadly of the hedge- 

 hog's animal foes ; and it is said that the polecat 

 not only goes out of its way to destroy these 

 creatures, but having destroyed them, eats bones 

 and even quills without ill effects. If this be so, 



