236 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
then roll the hedgehog over with a paw, touching it 
gently, so as not to run the spines in, till the depression. 
comes uppermost where the hedgehog has tucked his. 
head inwards. This is the only vulnerable place, and 
with one desperate bite the dog thrusts his teeth in. 
there, seizes the nose, and then has the hedgehog in 
his power. The young of the hedgehog are amusing 
little things, and try to roll themselves up in precisely 
the same manner ; but they cannot close the aperture 
where they tuck their heads insocompletely. Though 
invisible during the sunshine, hiding so carefully as to: 
be rarely found, when the dew begins to gather thickly 
on the grass and the shades deepen they issue forth, 
and if you remain quite still show no fear at all. 
While waiting in a dry ditch I have often had a hedge- 
hog come rustling slightly along the bottom till he 
reached my boot ; then he would go up the ‘shore’ of 
the ditch out among the grass hunting for beetles. 
and the creeping things which he likes most. 
In some places they are numerous; one or two. 
other meadows on the farm beside the home-field are 
favourite haunts of theirs, and five or six may be 
found out feeding within a short distance. When all 
is still they move rapidly through the grass—quite a 
run; much quicker than they appear capable of 
moving. The plough lads, if they find one, carry it to 
a pond, knowing that nothing but water will make it 
unroll voluntarily—-no knocks or kicks; but the mo- 
ment it touches the water it uncoils. Now and then 
