Dog attacking the Hedgehog 191 



the sun shines it is extremely difficult to find one without 

 a dog. 



A spaniel racing down the mound will pounce on the 

 spot and scratch the hedgehog out in a moment ; then, 

 missing the dog, you presently hear a whining kind of bark 

 — half rage, half pain — and know immediately what he is 

 doing. He is trying to unroll the hedgehog, who, so soon 

 as he felt the approach of the enemy, curled himself into 

 a ball, with the sharp spines sticking out everywhere. The 

 spaniel, snapping at the animal, runs these quills deep into 

 his jowl ; he draws back, snaps again, shakes his head, and 

 then tries a third time, with bloodspots round his mouth. 

 Every repulse embitters him — his semi-whine expresses 

 intense annoyance, and if left alone there he would stay till 

 covered with blood. 



But the older dogs sometimes learn the trick : they then 

 roll the hedgehog over with a paw, touching it gently, so as 

 not to run the spines in, till the depression comes upper- 

 most where the hedgehog has tucked his head inwards. 

 This is the only vulnerable place, and with one desperate 

 bite the dog thrusts his teeth in there, seizes the nose, and 

 then has the hedgehog in his power. The young of the 

 hedgehog are amusing little things, and try to roll themselves 

 up in precisely the same manner ; but they cannot close 

 the aperture where they tuck their heads in so completely. 

 Though invisible during the sunshine, hiding so carefully 

 as to be rarely found, when the dew begins to gather thickly 

 on the grass and the shades deepen they issue forth, and if 

 you remain quite still show no fear at all. While waiting in a 

 dry ditch I have often had a hedgehog come rustling slightly 

 along the bottom till he reached my boot ; then he would 

 go up the ' shore ' of the ditch out among the grass, hunting 

 for beetles and the creeping things which he likes most. 



