Quadrupeds. 4009 



Observations on the Harmlessness of the Hedgehog. 

 By the Rev. Alfred Charles Smith. 



Mr. Catchpool, in his note on the hedgehog (Zool. 4008), seems 

 to take exception to the epithet " harmless" as applied by me to that 

 animal; and, in support of his opinion, gives a strong instance of the 

 carnivorous propensities of Master Piggy. Fearing, therefore, lest 

 silence should imply consent to the inferences derived by Mr. Catch- 

 pool from his discovery that a hedgehog dined on fowl, — first, that he 

 was therefore anything but harmless ; and, secondly, that he was in 

 consequence worthy of death, — I must ask leave to say a few words 

 in his defence, as I should be extremely sorry to see so interesting an 

 animal doomed to even greater persecution than he already receives 

 at the hands of the thoughtless and ignorant. 



Now, when I called the hedgehog "harmless," I was perfectly aware 

 that he was occasionally carnivorous. I believe his appetite embra- 

 ces a great variety of food ; he is well known to eat snakes, worms, 

 slugs, snails, frogs, toads, beetles, insects and mice, in addition to va- 

 rious roots, acorns, and other wild fruits, when they have fallen to the 

 ground. These things I consider to form his every-day diet ; but 1 

 acknowledge, at the same time, that he will occasionally eat a young- 

 rabbit, and, it seems, a young fowl, when he can find one ; perhaps, 

 too, we must sometimes add to his bill of fare, a few eggs, and, in one 

 case, even bees, (Zool. 2637) : though his most bitter foe will hardly 

 desire the destruction of his race for this peculiar propensity in an 

 individual. 



Assuming then that noxious reptiles, insects, roots and fallen fruits 

 form his customary food, I would beg his accusers, in condemning 

 him for an occasional error, not to lose sight of his virtues. There 

 are many notices of him in the * Zoologist,' proving him to be a deter- 

 mined destroyer of venomous reptiles ; and though, in all honesty, I 

 must own there are also therein several records of his carnivorous 

 habits, these seem to be exceptional cases, occurring from lack of 

 his ordinary food, and only proving how omnivorous an animal he is. 

 Indeed, even Mr. Catchpool, had he considered the hedgehog as es- 

 sentially a destructive carnivorous animal, and viewed him in the same 

 light in which we are apt to look upon the fox, the weasel, and the 

 polecat, would scarcely have thought it necessary to record his inva- 

 sion of the hen-house, and his sanguinary attack on the pullet. But 

 I do hope that an occasional fault will not alone be remembered, and 

 XT. 2 P 



