HEDGE HOG. 
85 
LETTER XXVII. To T. PENNANT, Esa. 
DEAR SIR, Selhorne, February 22, 1770. 
Hedge-hogs 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 man- 
dible, 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 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 inconsiderable 
part of their food. In June last I procured a litter of four or 
five young hedge-hogs, 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 par- 
turition: but it is plain that 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 cau- 
tion. 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. Hedge-hogs make a deep and warm 
hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal them- 
selves for the winter : but I never could find that they stored in 
any winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do.* 
* Few animals are easier to tame than the common European urchin or " hedge-hog" (erinaceus 
Europoeus), a species common in most parts of the country, and nocturnal, or rather crepuscular, 
in its habits. Confined in a small garden, or rather enclosure, it only requires to be not tor- 
mented, and to be fed occasionally from the hand, and it will soon lose its natural timidity, will 
cease to contract into a ball when gently examined, and allow its manners to be closely and ad-^ 
vantageously observed. The first night it will be foMud to have formed itself a retreat, which it 
mostly resorts to ever after, removing the mould till it can lie with its back level with the surface, 
