818 Birds. 



kestrel ; and, therefore, the probabilities were in favour of all three 

 so feeding under .the circumstances. 



I almost think, however, that in the case of birds in a state of con- 

 finement or domestication, the natural tastes and habits are so 

 changed by change of state, that unnatural food is frequently found 

 to be more suitable than that which is natural : witness the variety 

 of food prescribed, and, I verily believe, in many instances necessary, 

 for the successful rearing of young birds of different species. The 

 trouble of rearing young pheasants is not small, arising from the diffi- 

 culty of providing suitable food : and yet, apparently, the further we 

 recede from what is natural, the greater is our success. Even the 

 flesh-maggot, which they probably would meet with occasionally in 

 their wild state, disagrees with them in the pheasantry unless it be well 

 scoured. It is very common to give them the eggs of the large wood 

 ant, and yet it is equally doubtful whether these form an article of 

 diet in a state of nature. Several intelligent gamekeepers have 

 assured me they never saw one of these nests that appeared to have 

 been disturbed by the pheasants. I know one who is so fully con- 

 vinced that these eggs are not natural food, that he has ceased, for 

 that reason, to give them to his brood ; though, by the way, he is 

 very eloquent in praise of boiled egg and fresh curd, not much more 

 natural to them, as I opine. 



I am inclined to assume that the refusal of a particular article of 

 diet is a proof that such is not the natural food of the creature — and 

 yet even here I have my doubts : for I have known birds in confine- 

 ment refuse what those of the same species will eat in a w r ild state. 

 Wishing to ascertain, by personal observation, whether or not the 

 hedgehog is guilty of robbing hens' nests (I have expressed my fears 

 on the subject, ' Zoologist,' P- 778), I procured one, or rather he offered 

 himself for the experiment, by walking about within a few yards of 

 my window one moonlight night in October last. Placing him in 

 my conservatory, I set before him a plate of raw beef for his supper: 

 in the morning the beef had disappeared. On the next night I gave 

 him a choice of dishes — raw beef again, a boiled potato, a slice of 

 bread, and a bantam's egg. The meat was eaten, the potato remained 

 untouched, the bread had been nibbled, but the egg, though moved a 

 couple of feet from the spot where I had placed it, was whole. I left 

 the egg within reach for several nights, supplying, twice, no other fare, 

 but the egg was not touched. Now this, I think, if not conclusive, 

 is pretty strong evidence against the egg-eating propensity of the 

 hedgehog : for the creature never refused to regale himself on meat, 



