400 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



EDITOEIAL GLEANINGS. 



Hedgehogs Sucking Cows ? — Mr. Claude Morley, in the ' East 

 Anglian Daily Times ' of Sept. 30th last, writes: — " Mr. John Cocka- 

 day, of the Queen's Head Hotel, at Stradbroke, is the first person 

 known to me to confirm the accuracy of this habit. Everyone has 

 heard someone else say that such is true, but no confirmation was 

 forthcoming till Mr. Cockaday kindly wrote that he ' has on several 

 occasions seen a hedgehog sucking a cow, when farming on Mr. 

 Eustace Gurney's Sproston Hall Estate, in Norfolk.' To-day he gave 

 me the interesting details of one of these cases : — Five years ago he 

 noticed a cow lying down, and on approaching noticed that a hedgehog 

 (very common in that neighbourhood) was sucking. This was dis- 

 tinctly visible at fifteen or twenty yards, and the contraction of the 

 cheeks in the act of suction also was evident. The important point 

 noticed was that only the extremity of the mouth touched the teat, 

 and the teeth were not in contact at all, which obviates the theory 

 advanced by many naturalists that their conformation precluded the 

 possibility of such a sucking habit. In this case, after a short time, 

 the teeth would appear to have actually come into play, for the cow 

 jumped to her feet in a fright and kicked vigorously at the hedgehog, 

 which Mr. Cockaday's dog promptly slew." 



Mr. Millais, in his ' Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland ' 

 (vol. i., p. 118), remarks on this matter: "Cows in full lactation 

 often have drops of milk clinging to the udders, and a hedgehog 

 snouting round for insects might well come across this unexpected 

 delicacy and lick it off. A hedgehog tastes most things that come 

 in its way." Major Barrett-Hamilton, in his ' History of British 

 Mammals' now in course of publication, writes (Part vii., p. 69): — 

 "But careful naturalists, remembering amongst other things, the 

 small size of the hedgehog's mouth, will probably await further 

 evidence before they place the sucking of cows amongst the habitual 

 accomplishments of the animal ; and I am inclined to think that the 

 story may be classed with the many other mythical narratives 

 which make the work of the older naturalists more picturesque than 

 trustworthy." 



