Quadrupeds. 1205 



been a strenuous defender of the hedgehog from the charge of destroying game, 

 which has been brought against it. The facts mentioned in * The Zoologist' (Zool. 

 715), in the interesting paper " A last word for the poor Hedgehog," together with 

 the assertions of several gamekeepers, with whom I have conversed on the subject, 

 induced me to alter my opinion, as to its entire harmlessness ; but the following fact, 

 which came under my own observation last week, so fully convicts the animal in ques- 

 tion of the charge of carnivorous habits, as to remove me from the list of his de- 

 fenders. While walking one evening, I overtook a large hedgehog, which appeared 

 just to have set out on its nocturnal rambles. I carried him home, and gave him the 

 run of a small walled garden. In the middle of the second night of his captivity, I 

 was awakened by the loud and alarmed cackling of a couple of fowls, the fattening 

 tenants of a coop in the same garden. On looking out of my bed-room window, ex- 

 pecting to see some biped midnight plunderer, I could discover nothing but the dim 

 outline of the coop. Upon listening, however, I heard the cries of the chickens 

 repeated, but now with the addition of a perfectly different sound, for literally "thrice 

 and once the hedgehog whined,'' and I was no longer at a loss to guess the cause of 

 the alarm of the fowls. I immediately lighted a candle, dressed, and went out to 

 inquire more particularly into the affair, expecting to find the urchin at the bars, 

 scaring the imprisoned fowls. I found, however, that he had crept through a space 

 not quite three inches in width, into the coop, and that he was engaged in close com- 

 bat with one of the fowls, whose life's blood he would have drank, had not my timely 

 arrival prevented the tragedy ! From that moment the last remaining spark of my 

 love and respect to his race as an inoffensive and much maligned one, was quenched. 

 Until then I cherished the hope expressed by your correspondent, W. H. S., and by 

 Mr. Waterton, in his very interesting Essays, that the carnivorous habits of the hedge- 

 hog were the effects of confinement, and a lack of their natural food, and did not arise 

 from any innate propensity in them to prey upon these animals. But the case I have 

 mentioned, destroys, I think, even this charitable hope. Here was the very experi- 

 ment which W. H. S. suggested as one which ought to be adopted, in order " to try 

 the matter quite fairly." A hedgehog is placed in a walled garden, which is known 

 to contain beetles and other insects, he is also supplied with milk, yet on the very 

 next night, instead of quietly feeding on his supposed natural food, he is discovered 

 in the act of killing a full grown fowl, having insinuated himself through the narrow 

 bars of its coop for that purpose ! This is a case so strong, and having seen it myself, 

 I can vouch for the accuracy of it, that unless carnivorous propensities are natural to 

 the hedgehog, it is impossible to ascribe it to any other cause than Mr. Waterton's 

 suggestion, that they are at the time " not quite right in their head" If it was so with 

 my hedgehog, I can truly say there ivas method in his madness ! 



Having thus I fear too truly proved, that the poor hedgehog must no longer be 

 considered an inoffensive animal, I think he still deserves the protection of the 

 naturalist ; for although " a necessary act incurs no blame," and the destruction of 

 them in game preserves, is thus rendered necessary , : yet wanton cruelty to this or any 

 other of God's creatures, is a crime, which though still too prevalent among the lower 

 classes, is I trust being materially lessened, by the influence of the increasing number 

 of naturalists of the present day. The necessity of destroying animals of different 

 kinds injurious to man cannot be denied by the most humane. As Cowper says, — 

 " If man's convenience, health, 

 Or safety interfere, his rights and claims 



