194 The Zoologist— May, 1866. 



you please. 1 leave England for Madeira to-morrow weet. In the 



meantime, I remain, my dear Sir, 



Very truly yours, j 



Charles Waterton. 



Edward Newman, Esq. 



Private. 



Walton Hall, January 27th, 1846. 



My dear Sir, 



Although it is not my intention to defend the poor 

 hedgehog in the pages of the ' Zoologist,' still, as my name has been 

 introduced into your number of January [Zool. 1204], I have ventured 

 to send you a {mw remarks on Mr. Woiley's paper.* 



1st. There appears an incorrectness in his statement, for his birds 

 were "chickens," and then one of them became "a full-grown fowl" 

 in the same night. 



2ndly. As the hedgehog had the run of a small walled garden, might 

 he not have supposed that the hole in the hencoop was a hole 

 in his prison-wall? \i so, he would enter it for flight, and not fur 

 food. 



3rdly. His not supping on " beetles and other insects" and " milk," 

 which the walled garden was known to contain, argues strongly that 

 his capture and imprisonment had destroyed his appetite for the lime. 

 Hence I would conjecture that he squeezed himself into the coop for 

 bolting, and not for belly. 



4thly. Disappointed in not finding an outlet in the posterior of the 

 hencoop, 1 can easily conceive that he made a sufficient stir to cause 

 the fowls to leave their perch, and that, in their fright, at the sight of a 

 suspicious intruder, they would set up a cackling loud enough to rouse 

 Mr. Wolley from the arms of Morpheus. 



But as Mr. Wolley was not present when the uproar commenced, I 

 am at a loss to discover ho.w he knew that the hedgehog had first 

 attacked the fowls. Might not the fowls have attacked the hedgehog? 

 I once saw a hen attack and kill a magpie. 



Slhly. "Thrice and once the hedgehog whined." This whining 

 goes far to convince me that the hedgehog was fighting, and not 

 feeding ; for I know, and can prove by many observations, that the 

 hedgehog takes its prey in silence. 



* The paper wliich Mr. Waterton refers was, I ihiuk, from the pen of the Rev. J. 

 Peiiiberton Bartlett, not Mr. VVollev.— £. A'. 



