358 HABITS OF THE HEDGEHOG. 
The creature was marvellously tame, and would come at any time to a saucer of milk in 
broad daylight. Sometimes it took a fancy to promenading the garden, when it would trot 
along in its own quaint style, poking its sharp nose into every crevice, and turning over 
every fallen leaf that lay in its path. If it heard a strange step, it would immediately curl 
itself into a ball, and lie in that posture for a few minutes until its alarm had passed away, 
when it would cautiously unroll itself, peer about with its little bead-like eyes for a moment 
or two, and then resume its progress. 
From all appearances,it might have lived for many years had it not come by its death in 
a rather singular manner. There was a wood-shed inthe kitchen-garden, where the bean and 
pea-sticks were laid up in ordinary during the greater part of the year, and it seemed, for some 
unknown reason, to afford a marvellous attraction to the Hedgehog. So partial to this locality 
was the creature, that whenever it was missing we were nearly sure to find it among the bean- 
sticks in the wood-shed. One morning, however, on searching for the animal, in consequence 
of having missed its presence for some days, we found it hanging by its neck in the fork of a 
stick, and quite dead. The poor creature had probably slipped while climbing among the 
sticks, and had been caught by the neck in the bifurcation. 
It has just been mentioned that the Hedgehog was in the habit of drinking milk from a 
saucer, and this fact leads to the prevalent idea that the Hedgehogs are accustomed to suck 
cows while they are lying on the ground. Naturalists have generally denied this statement, 
saying, as is true enough, that the little mouth of the Hedgehog isso small that it would not 
be capable of sucking the cow, and that, even if it could do so, its needle-pointed teeth would 
be so painful to the cow that she would drive away the robber as soon as she felt its teeth. So 
far they are quite correct, for both their propositions are undoubtedly true. But, nathless, 
there is great truth in the assertion that the Hedgehog drinks the milk of cows. I have 
received several communications on this subject, where my correspondents assert that they 
have seen the creature engaged in that pursuit, and I have been told by several credible wit- 
nesses that they have been spectators of the same circumstance. But in neither case was it 
asserted that the animal was really sucking the cow, but that it was lying on the ground, lap- 
ping up the milk as it oozed from the over-filled udder of the animal before the hour of milk- 
ing had arrived. Granting this to be a fact, the creature can yet do no real injury to the 
farmer or the dairyman, as the amount of milk which it thus consumes is very small, and 
would have been wasted had it not been lapped up by the Hedgehog’s greedy tongue. 
The Hedgehog is also accused of stealing and breaking eggs, to which indictment it can 
but plead guilty. 
It is very ingenious in its method of opening and eating eggs; a feat which it performs 
without losing any of the golden contents. Instead of breaking the shell, and running the 
chance of permitting the contents to roll out, the clever animal lays the egg on the ground, 
holds it firmly between its fore-feet, bites a hole in the upper portion of the shell, and, insert- 
ing its tongue into the orifice, licks out the contents daintily. 
~ Not contenting itself with such comparatively meagre diet as eggs, the Hedgehog isa great 
destroyer of snakes, frogs, and other animals, crunching them together with their bones as 
easily as a horse will eat a carrot. Even the thick bone of a mutton-chop, or the big bone of 
afish, is splintered by the Hedgehog’s teeth with marvellous ease. On one account it is rather 
a valuable animal, forit will attack a viper as readily as a grass-snake, being apparently proof 
against the venom of the serpent’s fangs. Experiments have been tried in order to prove the 
poison-resisting power of this strange animal, which seems to be invulnerable to every kind 
of poison, whether taken internally or mixed with the blood by insertion into a wound. 
On one occasion, a Hedgehog was placed ina box together with a viper, and, after a while, 
began to attack it. The snake, being irritated, rose up, and bit its assailant smartly on the 
lip. The Hedgehog took but little notice of the incident, but after licking the wounded spot 
once or twice, returned to the charge. At last it succeeded in killing the viper, and, after 
having done so, ate its vanquished enemy, beginning at the tail, and so working upwards. 
The animal always seems to eat a snake in this fashion, and on one occasion was known to 
proceed with its banquet while the poor snake was still living. 
