64 THE NATURAL HISTOEY 



age ; and they have Httle 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 con- 

 tract 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 it's full tone and firmness.^ Hedge-hogs make a 

 deep and warm hybemaculum 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 quadrupeds certainly 

 do. 



I have discovered an anecdote ^ with respect to the fieldfare 

 {turdus pilaris), which I think is particular enough : ^ this bird, 

 though it sits on trees in the day-time, and procures the greatest 

 part of it's food from white-thorn 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 red-wings in the 

 hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why these birds, in 

 the matter of roosting, should differ from all their congeners, and 

 from themselves also with respect to their proceedings by day, is 

 a fact for which I am by no means able to account. 



1 have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose-deer ; 

 but in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way : my little 

 intelligence is confined to the nan-ow sphere of my own observa- 

 tions at home. 



' [There is one use of the hedgehog's armour which I have never seen mentioned, 

 but which I had repeated opportunities of verifying in one which I kept myself. 

 Running about a small yard at the back of the house, which overhung an area, it 

 would go to the very edge ; and looking over as if to ascertain if the descent were safe, 

 it would roll up into a ball in the very act of throwing itself down ; and, falling 

 upon its elastic spines, it would, in a few seconds after alighting upon the stones, 

 open and run off, wholly unhurt by this voluntary fall of at least ten feet. — Bell.'\ 



2 [Here and elsewhere in the Letters Gilbert White uses the word anecdote in the 

 original sense of a piece of unpublished information. Thus in a letter to his brother 

 John he says : " Be so good as not to forestall my cobweb-shower. I wish I had 

 two or three dozen more of such anecdotes," The word was of recent introduction 

 (from the French) at this time. ] 



•^[" Particular," i.e., noteworthy. The fieldfare is not averse to nesting as well 

 as roosting on the ground where trees are scarce or absent, and certainly does not 

 affect " very high trees" in the extreme north of Scandinavia, but rather birches, 

 alders, etc.] 



