HEDGE-HOG FIELDFARE. 83 



litter of four or five young hedge-hogs, which appeared to be 

 about five or six days old : they, I find, like puppies, are born 

 blind, and could not see when they came to my hands. No 

 doubt their spines are soft and flexible at the time of their 

 birth, or else the poor dam would have but a bad time of it in 

 the critical moment of parturition : but it is plain that they 

 soon harden ; for these little pigs had such stiff prickles on 

 their backs and side as would easily have fetched blood, had 

 they not been handled with caution. Their spines are quite 

 white at this age ; and they have little hanging ears, which I 

 do not remember to be discernible in the old ones. They can, 

 in part, at this age, draw their skin down over their faces ; but 

 are not able to contract themselves into a ball, as they do, for 

 the sake of defence, when full grown. The reason, I suppose, 

 is, because the curious muscle that enables the creature to roll 

 itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its full tone and 

 firmness. Hedge-hogs make a deep and warm hybernaculum 

 with leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves for the 

 winter ; but I never could find that they stored in any winter 

 provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do. 



I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare, 

 (turdus pilaris,) which I think is particular enough. This bird, 

 though it sits on trees in the day-time, and procures the greatest 

 part of its food from white-thorn hedges ; yea, moreover, builds 

 on very high trees, as may be seen by the Fauna Suecica; yet 

 always appears with us to roost on the ground. They are seen 

 to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to settle and nestle 

 among the heath on our forest. And, besides, the larkers, in 

 dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the 

 wheat stubbles ; while the bat fowlers, who take many red- 

 wings in the hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why 

 these birds, in the matter of roosting, should differ from ail 

 their congeners, and from themselves also with respect to their 

 proceedings by day, is a fact for which I am by no means able 

 to account. 



his audacity, that he took the top of his axe and despatched him in an 

 instant. Various game-keepers have frequently told us that they sus- 

 pected the predatory habits of the hedge-hog, though we never knew an 

 instance in which the fact was so satisfactorily proved as in the present. 



In the year 1799, there was a hedge-hog in the possession of Mr Sample, 

 of the Angel Inn at Felton, in Northumberland, which performed the duty 

 of a turnspit, as well, in all respects, as the dog called the turnspit. It 

 ran about the house with the same familiarity as any other domestic 

 quadruped, and displayed an obedience, till then unknown in this species 

 of animal. ED. 



