NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBOUNE, 
63 
LETTER XXVII. 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, Feb. 227id, 1770. 
Dear Sir, — Hedgehogs abound in my gardens and fields. The 
manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my grass-walks 
is' very curious ; with their upper mandible, which is much longer than 
their lovfer, they bore under the plant, and so eat the root off upwards, 
leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In this respect they are 
serviceable, as they destroy a very troublesome weed; but they deface 
the walks in some measure by digging little round holes. It appears, 
by the dung that they drop upon the turf, that beetles are no incon- 
sid erab.le part of their food. In June last I procured a litter of four 
or five young hedgehogs, which appeared to be about five or six days 
old : they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when 
they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are soft and flexible at 
the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would have but a bad time 
of it in the critical moment of parturition, but it is plain they soon 
harden ; for these little pigs had such stiff prickles on their backs and 
sides as would easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled 
with caution. Their spines are quite white at this age ; and they have 
little hanging ears, which I do not remember to be discernible in the 
old ones. They can, in part, at this age draw their skin down over 
their faces ; but are 
not able to contract 
themselves into a 
ball, as they do, for 
the sake of defence, 
when full grown. The 
reason, I suppose, is, 
because the curious 
muscle that enables 
the creature to roll 
itself up in a ball was 
not then arrived at 
its full tone and 
firmness. Hedgehogs 
make a deep and 
warm hybernaculum 
with leaves and moss, 
in which they con- 
ceal themselves for 
the winter : but I 
never could find that 
they stored in any winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do. 
I have discovered an anecdote with^ respect to the fieldfare {turdus 
HEDGEHOG. 
