92 NATURAL HISTORY 



they drop upoii the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable 

 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. 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 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 conceal themselves for the winter: but I never could 

 find that they stored in any winter provision, as some qua- 

 drupeds certainly do. 



I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the field- 

 fare (Turdus pilaris), which I think is particular enough: 

 this bird, though it sits on trees in the daytime, and pro- 

 cures the greatest part of its food from whitethorn 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 redwings in the hedges, 



?o round and smooth tliat I said directly to myself, ''tis the burrow of 

 a night-eating caterpillar.' I got a trowel and in a trice the fellow was 

 unearthed; and he afterwards turned to a 'ghost moth' or 'yellow 

 under wing,' I cannot say which, for both came out in one cage." ED 



