Quadrupeds. 791 



Anecdote of a Cat's Nest on a Tree Mr. Nichol tells me that three weeks ago he 

 saw a cat leap from a dark bushy tree into a pond near Mid Calder, where it was 

 drowned. Not long afterwards, some individuals passing by the same place, heard 

 the mewing of cats or kittens, and no doubt they wondered much. On listening atten- 

 tively, they ascertained that the sound proceeded from a tree, the branches of which 

 overhung the water. On climbing the tree, they found, at the height of about a 

 storey and a half, four or five kittens, snugly reclining on a nest, placed upon an 

 extended branch, which was covered with the densest foliage. On examination, it was 

 found that Pussy had monopolized the nest of a wood pigeon, after making it, per- 

 haps, a little more suitable to the education of her young and luxurious family, than 

 it was when she first set foot upon it. Around the nest were deposited many dainty 

 morsels ; besides pigeons and smaller birds, hares, rabbits, and other game lay there in 

 profusion, ready for the use of the juvenile poachers. Strange as this anecdote may 

 appear, it is not more astonishing than true. — Id. 



Notes on the Hedgehog. In the course of the autumn of 1841, in one of my 

 evening walks, I stumbled over a hedgehog, and on finding, by the sense of feeling — 

 it was too dark to see — what it was, I took it up and conveyed it home. I kept it for 

 several weeks, partly with a view to ascertain what it would or would not eat. The 

 first kind of food I offered it was raw mutton, and when I offered the meat the 

 animal had been in confinement about twenty-two hours ; yet, notwithstanding it was 

 in a perfectly strange scene, and had fasted only a part of the preceding night — at 

 least I presumed so from the hour at which I found it — it took the mutton into a 

 corner of the room, and ate it greedily, making, at the same time, a singularly harsh 

 sound in the process of eating. I placed apples, pears, potatoes, both cooked and 

 uncooked, eggs, beef, mutton, mice, sparrows, &c. in its place, and plenty of milk. 

 Neither apple, pear, nor potato was ever touched. The eggs were unmanageable by the 

 poor captive, but when I gave them a slight crack, their contents were speedily ab- 

 stracted. The mouse or sparrow was devoured at the first convenient opportunity, 

 and at any hour of the day, while the beef and mutton always disappeared even- 

 tually. The fat was invariably left. So much for the food of the hedgehog. As to 

 its habits I have little to say: I kept it all through the winter ; its longest nap was 

 for about two, at the most, three days. If I set it free in the room, or it made its 

 escape from its box, it was very soon to be found among the ashes under the grate, 

 attracted thither, I thought, by the warmth. If placed on a table, it never hesitated 

 about running over the edge, rolling itself up in an instaut (as noticed by Mr. Jesse, 

 I think), and sustaining no harm from its fall. The gamekeeper tells me he catches 

 many hedgehogs in his traps, which are invariably baited with flesh (Zool. 716), 

 and generally that of the rabbit ; and when defending the poor hedgehog one day, on 

 the score of its harmlessness in respect of the game, he replied by saying he thought 

 it very curious they should show such a strong penchant for rabbit meat, if really 

 averse or indifferent to a game diet; and that he feared a tender young leveret in its 

 seat would prove quite as tempting as half a young rabbit suspended over a trap. 

 His reasoning was unanswerable : what could I reply ? and as for the eggs of game, 

 when he accused the hedgehog of that kind of poaching also, I could not say " Oh 

 no, you are prejudiced there, you have never seen a hedgehog so engaged, and there- 

 fore you may be accusing him of other people's crimes ; indeed, I don't think he 

 likes, or will eat eggs :" because I had had ample proof that if he spared an egg for 

 three days, it was only because he was unable to get at its contents, and for no other 



