A ROADSIDE NATURALIST. 15 



by. A very low yet quite decided grunt he gives, 

 and he whines as well. Shakespeare, who seems to 

 have been a most excellent out-of-doors naturalist 

 — a minute observer of life, indeed, in all shapes — 

 noticed the hedgehog, and wrote, "The hedgehog 

 whines at night." If any one of our readers pos- 

 sesses a tame hedgehog, let him examine the eye of 

 the creature if he has not already done so. If the 

 eye is the index to the mind, as I firmly believe it to 

 be, the hedgehog knows a gre^t deal, and only uses 

 his knowledge for his own special benefit. 



Leaving the animal department of our roadside 

 observations, we will pass on to the birds, considering 

 first the day-flying raptores, or birds of prey. All 

 those that are left to us keep in close touch with 

 man — so much so, that they have suffered a woful 

 thinning down at his hands. Yet they still visit his 

 stack and poultry yards in search of quarry of one 

 sort or another, taking it into the middle of one of 

 his fields or on to the middle of the highroad, to 

 make a meal off it. The hen-harriers and the spar- 

 row-hawks hunt and kill the partridges by the roads 

 after the corn is cut, and the birds are frequently 

 cut down as they clear the hedge to cross over the 



