XXXI.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER XXXI. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 
Hedge-hogs abound in my gardens and fields. The manner 
in wliicli they eat the roots of the plantain in the grass-walk 
is very curious : witli their upper mandible, which is much 
longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and so eat 
the root off upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In 
HKDGE-HOG AND YOUNU. 
this respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very trouble- 
some weed ; but they deface the walks in some measure by 
digging little roimd holes. It appears, by the dung that they 
drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of 
their food. In June last I procured a litter of five or six young 
hedge-hogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old ; 
they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and coukl not see 
when they came to my hands. N'o doubt their spines are soft 
and flexible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam 
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