HUNTING— FISHING— WARS AND EXPEDITIONS. 47 



and remain motionless until it is covered by insects. 

 They can then absorb them at one stroke without 

 fear. 



One would not think that an animal so well de- 

 fended as the Hedgehog need fear becoming the prey 

 of the Fox. Rolled in a ball, bristling with hard 

 prickles which cruelly wound an assailant's mouth, 

 nothing will induce him to unroll so long as he 

 supposes the enemy still in the neighbourhood. It is 

 vain to strike him or to rub him on the earth; he 

 remains on the armed defensive. Only one circum- 

 stance disturbs him to the point of making him quit 

 his prudent posture; it is to feel himself in the water, 

 or even simply to be moist. The fox is acquainted 

 with this weakness, therefore as soon as he has 

 captured a "hedgehog he rolls him in the nearest 

 marsh to strangle him as soon as his head appears. 

 It may happen that there is no puddle in the neigh- 

 bourhood suitable for this bath; it is said that in this 

 case the fox is not embarrassed for so small a matter, 

 and provides from his own body the wherewithal to 

 moisten the hedgehog. 



The combination is complicated, and approaches 

 more nearly the methods employed by Man when the 

 animal makes use of a foreign body, as a tool or as 

 a fulcrum, to achieve his objects. A snake is very 

 embarrassed when he has swallowed an entire egg 

 with the shell ; he cannot digest it in that condition, 

 and the muscles of his stomach are not strong enough 

 to break it. The snake often finds himself in this con- 

 dition, and is then accustomed either to strike his body 

 against hard objects or to coil himself around them 

 until he has broken the envelope of the eggs he 

 contains. 



