Quadrupeds. 857 



Carnivorous propensity of the Hedgehog. That this animal is the subject of some 

 " vulgar errors," may be perfectly true ; but that it is carnivorous, I feel absolutely 

 convinced. Many years ago I had opportunities of watching the animal, having cap- 

 tured and kept for a short time several individuals. They fed readily from the very 

 first, and in particular some, to whom it was offered, drank milk from a saucer most 

 greedily. The common garden shell-snails appeared very acceptable morsels, being 

 cracked with the utmost ease (if not too large for the mouth), and champed down with 

 the greatest gusto. Mr. Bury expresses a doubt (Zool. 818), whether the hedgehog 

 will eat eggs ; but I would suggest, that his experiment is not conclusive. He states 

 having offered his urchin " a bantam's egg ;" but I believe those eggs have not un- 

 frequently very strong shells ; certainly I have occasionally met with eggs, the shells 

 of which would puzzle a larger animal than a hedgehog not having the ttou <rrco for 

 making the first fracture, nor the power of striking, as a bird, with its beak. If Mr. 

 Bury would select a thin-shelled egg, or one with a cracked shell, perhaps the result 

 would be different. To prove the carnivorous propensities of this animal, I may men- 

 tion two circumstances, not indeed within my own knowledge , but of which I was 

 informed, from an authority to be relied upon. In the first instance, a gamekeeper, 

 having for some nights lost one of a brood of pheasants he was rearing under a hen, 

 confined the latter to a corner of the coop, and set a rat-trap, wherein next morning 

 he found a hedgehog ; thus convincing himself, as he desired, what was the depre- 

 dator. The other instance, of hedgehogs being frequently caught in nets placed to 

 intercept rabbits, though not so conclusive, certainly affords strong ground for suspi- 

 cion. The bank, in which rabbits abounded, was close to a piece of water, and the 

 nets were set between the burrows in the bank and the uplands, so that the only 

 apparent temptation to the hedgehogs was either the water, or the young rabbits. — 

 A. Hussey ; Rotting dean, January, 1845. 



Carnivorous propensity of the Hedgehog. A few summers ago I placed a hedgehog 

 in our garden, which being walled round, I was certain he could not escape from ; 

 believing then in his innocence, and fancying to myself the good he might do in the 

 way of regaling himself upon beetles, and other vermin. It chanced, however, that a 

 brood of young ducks, with their foster-mother, a hen, the latter under a coop, were 

 also placed there. Not many days elapsed before two or three ducklings were missing; 

 who the thief could be was a mystery, still the ducks disappeared, one by one, or were 

 found dead and mutilated. A cat was suggested as the aggressor. No. A rat ! No, 

 not likely. It could not be the hedgehog ? Oh ! certainly not. However, the re- 

 mains of a dead one being left one morning a short distance from the coop, I fastened 

 it in the evening to a trap, removing the remaining live ones away, hoping thus to 

 solve the riddle, and the following morning there was my harmless hedgehog, caught 

 in the very act of making a grip at the poor little duck. The survivors were again 

 placed in their former situation, and remained unmolested, thus bringing home the 

 guilt to Mr. Hedgehog pretty conclusively. — Christopher Parsons; North Shoebury 

 Hall, near Rochford, Essex, January 6, 1845. 



Food and habits of the Hedgehog. A relation of mine, along with some other boys, 

 at the " Blaeberry* time," this summer, alighted upon a pheasant's nest. Returning 

 to the place a day or two afterwards, curiosity prompted them to examine, and see 



* Vaccinium uliginosum. 



iii 2 u 



