NATURAL HISTORY OF SELB011NE. 



63 



LETTEE XXVII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Feb. 22nd, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, Hedgehogs abound in my gardens and fields. The 

 manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my grass-walks 

 is very curious ; with their upper mandible, which is much longer than 

 their lower, they bore under the plant, and so eat the root off upwards, 

 leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In this respect they are 

 serviceable, as they destroy a very troublesome weed ; but they deface 

 the walks in some measure by digging little round holes. It appears, 

 by the dung that they drop upon the turf, that beetles are no incon- 

 siderable part of their food. In June last I procured a litter of four 

 or five young hedgehogs, 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. Fo 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 they soon 

 harden ; for these little pigs had such stiff prickles on their backs and 

 sides 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. Hedgehogs 

 make a deep and 

 warm hybernaculum 

 with leaves and moss, 

 in which they con- 

 ceal themselves for 

 the winter: but I HEDGEHOG. 



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 



