290 Miscellanea, Correspondence, &c, by Mr. Jas. Hardy. 



I. ZOOLOGICAL. 



Food, &c, of the Hedgehog. — The late Mr. Henderson, 

 surgeon, Chimside, sent the following notes, Feb. 2, 1856 : 

 — " I believe the Hedgehog feeds on eggs — the following 

 will go to prove it. About thirty -five years ago, I was 

 travelling late in the evening along a footpath by the side of 

 a hedge. On my way I was attracted by an awful flutter- 

 ing and flapping of wings, as if of some bird in deadly 

 conflict. On proceeding near the spot whence the sounds 

 issued, I was astonished to find a partridge striking its 

 wings and claws with utmost fury against some object at 

 the root of the hedge. Had I been wary enough I could 

 easily have caught the bird ; but on touching it, it made its 

 escape, when the object of its hatred became apparent ; for 

 there, in the nest of the poor bird, I laid hold of a large 

 Hedgehog. All the eggs were broken, except one. I carried 

 away the hurcheon from the nest for nearly a mile, and then 

 set it at liberty. I think it could have no other intention 

 there than that of carrying off, or eating, the eggs. The 

 Hedgehog seems to be a very common animal in this neigh- 

 bourhood ; I have seen it in many places. Some years ago 

 I discovered a brood of young ones, with their mother, by 

 the root of a tree covered with withered leaves, at Ninewells 

 — there were four young ones at least, all naked of spines." 



Lamb Reared by a Colley. — Mr. James Telfer, of Saugh- 

 tree, Liddesdale, a poet and prose writer, well known on the 

 Borders, communicated the following circumstance, for which 

 he vouched the truth. The letter is dated 17th Jan., 1853. 

 "A curious thing happened at the herd's house, Worms- 

 cleugh, in this water-head (four miles from this), in 1835 or 

 6. The herd, a cousin of mine, had a colley bitch which 

 chanced to have a litter of pups in the middle of the lamb- 

 ing time, when her services could be badly wanted. The 

 pups were accordingly drowned, and the poor disconsolate 

 mother was forced to follow her master to the hill. It hap- 

 pened to be a very bad lambing time — the ewes had almost 

 no milk, and many of the young lambs died of hunger. The 

 herd carried home one day a motherless lamb (as herds are 

 in the habit of doing), and the lamb and the bitch during 

 the nights were co-occupants of the byre. To cut my tale 

 short, the bitch and the lamb drew up, and wonderful to 

 say, the bitch suckled the lamb, and the lamb throve upon 

 such nursing, and like Maillie's lamb, ' lived to be a beast.' " 



