THE HEDGEHOG OR URCHIN 69 



hogs sucking a cow/ Major John Spicer,^ an acute observer, 

 commenting on the wide prevalence of the belief in milk-sucking, 

 noticed the Hedgehog's power of stretching out its neck, its 

 love of milk, and the cow's pleasure at being relieved of it, 

 together with a supposed calf-like cry on the part of the 

 Hedgehog, and confessed that he did not "see the great 

 improbability of it." Lastly, Sir Harry Johnston points out 

 that there is nothing improbable in a hedgehog, from merely 

 seeking the neighbourhood of a cow on account of the insects 

 which accompany her, being attracted to lick and finally to 

 suck the nipples. But careful naturalists, remembering amongst 

 other things, the small size of the Hedgehog's mouth, will 

 probably await further evidence before they place the suck- 

 ing of cows amongst the habitual accomplishments of the 

 animal ; and I am inclined to think that the story may be 

 classed with the many other mythical narratives which make 

 the work of the older naturalists more picturesque than trust- 

 worthy. 



The crimes of the Hedgehog, supposed or real, have 

 caused this poor animal to be the subject of an unrelenting 

 persecution from time immemorial. It appears in old Church- 

 wardens' Accounts' amongst the list of outlaws for whose 

 devoted heads a reward was paid. The price in Westmorland 

 was twopence * in the seventeenth century, but in Oxfordshire * 

 and Bedfordshire double that amount in the two following. 

 The pursuit, now abandoned by the churchwardens, has been 

 taken up by the gamekeepers, with the result that the animal's 

 numbers in any one district depend chiefly on the success 

 which attend its enemies' efforts to reduce them. 



In its natural state the Hedgehog is, with exceptions to be 

 noticed below, almost entirely nocturnal. Its gait is quick 

 and shuffling, and it proceeds, as it were, by starts, not continu- 



' On the authority of T. F. Buxton ; see Zoologist, 1853, 4151-4152. Adams also 

 writes me that he once received somewhat similar and unsolicited testimony from 

 a country boy. 



^ Loc. cit., 6057. 



' H. A. Macpherson ; for Buckinghamshire, see Cocks, Zoologist, 1892, 63 ; for 

 Bedfordshire, J. Steele- Elliott, y<5a/-«. cit., 1906, 161-167, 253-265. 



* Fixed at that amount by Act of Parliament in 1564, 8 Elizabeth (c. 15). 



' Fide Cocks. Cf. also Rochdale, Lancashire, 1643— "3 hedge hodgs, is. od." 

 (Stubbs, Zoologist, 380). 



