THE HEDGEHOG. 



than it could fe'.cli a milking-stool and a pail, and relieve the 

 animal's udder milkmaid-fashion. !CTot but that it is very 

 fond of cow's milk, and never loses an opportunity to satisfy 

 its craving ; if the milkers are tardy, and the cows are allowed 

 to he about with the luscious liquid trickling from their teem- 

 ing udders, any hedgehog that may happen to be in the neigh- 

 bourhood will certainly scent out the circumstance, and possibly 

 be found busily licking and lapping close to the teat. There 

 can be no doubt that the delusion concerning the cow-sucking 

 habit of the hedgehog is founded on this fact. 



The hedgehog has been likewise accused of being an orchard- 

 robber. He has been seen trudging home to his family with 

 his spines loaded with pippins. It is supposed to oUmb up a 

 tree, bite off the fruit at the stalks till a goodish many fall 

 and accumulate at the foot of the tree, and then descending, 

 roll itself over the fruit tiU. a load is impaled. For this delusion, 

 as well as the above-mentioned, there is ample ground; as, 

 says Mr. Wood, " hedgehogs do occasionally walk about with 

 apples on their spines, for I have been told so by aa ?^e-witness 

 to the fact, a man who was rather given to the studt of natural 

 history, and who had been much struck with tbp cii'cumstance. 

 But although they may be occasionally seen with an apple or 

 so stickiug on their backs, yet the apples most probably came 

 there accidentally. It is a very common thing to find a hedge- 

 hog covered with leaves, through which its spines are thrust, 

 but we do not therefore accuse it of eating leaves. In all pro^ 

 babiUty the creature had been alarmed, and had hastily rolled 

 itself up in a spot where apples were lying, and in that casp 

 some of them would be nearly certain to adhere to the spines." 



Nothing comes amiss to the hedgehog in the shape of food : 

 fish, flesh, fowl, vegetables, grubs, worms, and insects, all are 

 devoured with more or less relish. It has been denied that the 

 animal in question will eat vegetables, but it is sufficient to 

 know that so creditable an authority as the author of the 

 " Natural History of Selbome" declares the contrary. Wild 

 fruit, crabs, haws, &o., says Mr. White, form part of its 

 diet ; and the same gentleman enters into a long and cui-ious 

 account of the manner in which a hedgehog in his possession 

 '•ontrived to devour the roots of a plantain without injuring 

 the leaves. It devours large quantities of worms, and its mode 

 of operation is deserving of observation. The B.ev. L. Jenyns 

 thus describes the business : — " I fell in with a hedgehog to- 

 day in my walks, in a sheltered part of the garden, which I 



