448 



THE HEDGEHOG. 



cockroaches in our kitchen it used to be lent to a friend, to whom it performed the 

 same valuable service. In a few months those tiresome insects had again multiplied, 

 and the Hedgehog was restored to its former habitation. 



The creature was marvellously tame, and would come at any time to a saucer of milk 

 in broad daylight. Sometimes it took a fancy to promenading the garden, when it 

 would trot along in its own quaint style, poking its sharp nose into every crevice, and 

 turning over every fallen leaf that lay in its path. If it heard a strange step, it would 

 immediately curl itself into a ball, and lie in that posture for a few minutes until its 

 alarm had passed away, when it would cautiously unroll itself, peer about with its little 

 bead-like eyes for a moment or two, and then resume its progress. 



From all appearances, it might have lived for many years had it not come by its 

 death in a rather singular manner. There was a wood-shed in the kitchen-garden, where 

 the bean and pea-sticks were laid up in ordinary during the greater part of the yea*r, 

 and it seemed, for some unknown reason, to afford a marvellous attraction to the 

 Hedgehog. So partial to this locality was the creature that whenever it was missing 

 we were nearly sure to find it among the bean-sticks in the wood-shed. One morning, 

 however, on searching for the animal, in consequence of having missed its presence 

 for some days, we found it hanging by its neck in the fork of a stick, and quite dead. 

 The poor creature had probably slipped while climbing among the sticks, and had 

 been caught by the neck in the bifurcation. 



It has just been mentioned that the Hedgehog was in the habit of drinking milk from 

 a saucer, and this fact leads" to the prevalent idea that the Hedgehogs are accustomed 

 to suck cows while they are lying on the ground. Naturalists have generally denied 

 this statement, saying, as is true enough, that the little mouth of the Hedgehog is so 

 small that it would not be capable of sucking the cow, and that, even if it could do so, 

 its needle-pointed teeth would be so painful to the cow that she would drive away the 

 robber as soon as she felt its teeth. So far they are quite correct, for both their prop- 

 ositions are undoubtedly true. But, nathless, there is great truth in the assertion 

 that the Hedgehog drinks the milk of cows. I have received several communications 

 on this subject, where my correspondents assert that they have seen the creature en- 

 gaged in that pursuit, and I have been told by several credible witnesses that they 

 have been spectators of the same circumstance. But in neither case was it asserted 

 that the animal was really sucking the cow, but that it was lying on the ground, lap- 

 ping up the milk as it oozed from the over-filled udder of the animal before the hour 

 of milking had arrived. Granting this to be a fact, the creature can yet do no real 

 injury to the farmer or the dairyman, as the amount of milk which it thus consumes is 

 very small, and would have been wasted had it not been lapped up by the Hedgehog's 

 greedy tongue. 



The Hedgehog is also accused of stealing and breaking eggs, to which indictment it 

 can but plead guilty. 



It is very ingenious in its method of opening and eating eggs ; a feat which it 

 performs without losing any of the golden contents. Instead of breaking the shell, and 

 running the chance of permitting the contents to roll out, the clever animal lays the 

 egg on the ground, holds it firmly between its fore-feet, bites a hole in the upper por- 

 tion of the shell, and, inserting its tongue into the orifice, licks out the contents daintily. 



Not contenting itself with such comparatively meagre diet as eggs, the Hedgehog is 

 a great destroyer of snakes, frogs, and other animals, crunching them together with 

 their bones as easily as a horse will eat a carrot. Even the thick bone of a mutton- 

 chop, or the big bone of a fish, is splintered by the Hedgehog's teeth with marvellous 

 ease. On one account it is rather a valuable animal, for it will attack a viper as readily 

 as a grass-snake, being apparently proof against the venom of the serpent's fangs. 

 Experiments have been tried in order to prove the poison-resisting power of this strange 

 animal, which seems to be invulnerable to every kind of poison, whether taken inter- 

 nally or mixed with the blood by insertion into a wound. 



On one occasion, a Hedgehog was placed in a box together with a viper, and, after 

 a while, began to attack it. The snake, being irritated, rose up, and bit its assailant 

 smartly on the lip. The Hedgehog took but little notice of the incident, but, after 



