THE HEDGEHOG. 39 



upon it, if it be in warm weather, but in winter time the gentle 

 and gradual warmth of a fire must be substituted. 



Much confusion and error exists in zoological books con- 

 cerning the natural food of this animal. Some writers, especially 

 those who have a great affection and respect for their grand- 

 mothers' stories, say that it draws the new milk from the cow 5 

 and others persist that it climbs up into apple-trees and carries 

 off its tithes of the fruit after slicking them on its sharp thorny 

 bristles. But none of those persons, who tell us that the hedge- 

 hog plays all these vagaries, these ingenious and wonderful 

 tricks, have the kindness to render it clear to our comprehension 

 how the hedgehog manages to get at the cow's teat, and how he 

 takes it into his little mouth j or how he climbs up the perpen- 

 dicular trunks of trees, how he pulls off the fruit, how he raises 

 them above his back and thrusts his prickles through them, and 

 how he gets down again. These questions must be satisfactorily 

 answered before any jury of naturalists will find him guilty on 

 these several charges. But that the hedgehog will prey even 

 upon those creatures which man is jealous to preserve for his 

 own food alone, there can be little doubt. 



The keepers of Richmond Park assured Mr. Jesse that hedge- 

 hogs extract young rabbits from their nests, and eat them when 

 they are only a few days old 5 * and an anecdote is recorded, 

 affording some grounds for suspecting that it also kills young 

 leverets, f It will also eat mice, snakes, \ toads, frogs, slugs, 



* Gleanings, vol. ii. p. 255. 



f Anecdotes of Quadrupeds, p. 102. 



J Professor Buckland, having reason to suspect that the hedgehog occasion- 

 ally devours snakes, placed a hedgehog and a common British snake, which is 

 quite a harmless animal, in a box together. At first, the hedgehog did not see the 

 snake ; when the professor laid the former on the back of the latter, and in 

 such a way that it was in contact with that part where the head and tail of the 

 hedgehog were pressed together. As soon as the snake began to move, the 

 hedgehog started, opened slightly, gave the snake a sharp bite, and instantly 

 rolled itself up again. Three times it opened and shut in this manner, after 

 biting the snake each time, and by the third bite it broke the snake's back. 

 The hedgehog then, standing by the side of the snake, took up and passed the 

 dislocated body through its jaws, cracking and breaking the bones at intervals 



