HIBERNATION OF THE HEDGEHOG. 451 



and to which he administered a strong potation of sweetened whisky. The experiment 

 was not made with any intention of injuring the animal, but for the purpose of testing 

 the popular assertion that the creature would thereby be rendered tame. After saying 

 that the intoxicating draught soon showed its power on the animal, Dr. Ball proceeds 

 as follows : 



" Like the beasts that so indulge, he was anything but himself, and his lack-lustre, 

 leaden eye, was rendered still less pleasing by its inane, drunken expression. He stag- 

 gered towards us in a ridiculous, get-out of-my- way sort of manner; however, he had not 

 gone far before his potation produced all its effects he tottered, then fell on his side ; 

 he was drunk in the full sense of the word, for he could not even hold by the ground. 

 We could then pull him about, open his mouth, twitch his whiskers, etc. he was unre- 

 sisting. There was a strange expression in his face of that self-confidence which we 

 see in cowards when inspired by drinking. 



We put him away, and in some twelve hours afterwards found him running about, 

 and, as was predicted, quite tame, his spines lying so smoothly and regularly that he 

 could be stroked down the back and handled freely. We turned him into the kitchen 

 to kill cockroaches, and know nothing further of him." 



The home of the Hedgehog is made in some retired and well-protected spot, such as a 

 crevice in rocky ground, or under the stones of some old ruin. It greatly affects hollow 

 trees, wherever the decayed wood permits it to find an easy entrance, and not unfre- 

 quently is found coiled up in a warm nest which it has made under the large gnarled 

 roots of some old tree, where the rains have washed away the earth and left the roots 

 projecting occasionally from the ground. Beside these legitimate habitations, the 

 Hedgehog is frequently found to intrude itself upon the homes of other animals, and 

 has been often captured within rabbit burrows. Perhaps it may be led to these local- 

 ities by the double motive of obtaining shelter from weather and enemies and of mak- 

 ing prey of an occasional young rabbit. 



In its retreat the Hedgehog usually passes the winter in that semi-animate condition 

 which is known by the name of hibernation. 



The hibernation of the Hedgehog is more complete than that of the dormouse or 

 any other of our indigenous hibernating quadrupeds, for they always have a stock of 

 food on which they can rely, and of which they sparingly partake during the cold 

 months of the year. The Hedgehog, however, lays up no such stores, nor, indeed, could 

 it do so, for, as has already been mentioned, its food is almost entirely of an animal 

 nature. 



The hibernation of the Hedgehog has lately been denied, because Hedgehogs are 

 occasionally found at large during the winter months. Yet this is no proof to the 

 contrary, for it has already been noticed that the bears are occasionally in the habit of 

 roaming about during the winter, instead of lying motionless in their dens, as is the 

 general custom, yet no one denies the hibernation of the bear in consequence of that 

 well-known circumstance. The subject of hibernation has been rflost elaborately worked 

 out by Dr. Marshall Hall, who has published the result of his experiments in "Todd's 

 Cyclopaedia of Anatomy," and has made many curious observations on the hibernating 

 qualities of the animal which is now under consideration. 



In this able dissertation, Dr. Hall warns observers against confounding together the 

 torpor which is produced by excessive cold and that peculiar torpid state which is 

 called hibernation. Indeed, it is always found that although a Hedgehog, or other 

 hibernating animal, will pass into its semi-animate condition at a moderately low tem- 

 perature, it will be roused at once by severe cold, and will not again resume its lethargy 

 until the temperature be somewhat moderated. " All hibernating animals," he observes, 

 " avoid exposure to extreme cold. They seek some secure retreat, make themselves 

 nests or houses, or congregate in clusters, and if the season prove unusually severe, or 

 if their retreat be not well chosen, and they be exposed in consequence to excessive 

 cold, many become benumbed, stiff, and die." 



Those who experiment upon so delicate a subject as hibernation must bear this in 

 mind, and remember also that the least disquieting of the animal will injure the condition 

 under which it sustains its torpidity, even though it should be of so slight a nature as 



