31 
TWO HEDGEHOGS AND THEIR WAYS. 
“ Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen.” 
EDGEHOGS are without doubt curious and interesting 
animals. Many surprises are in store for the indivi- 
dual who keeps a hog or two. Put them in a garden 
of which you think you know every corner, and then 
try and find them. Picture-puzzles are nothing to it. The 
only way to be certain your hedgepigs are still about, is to go 
out late in the evening with a lantern : then you will be certain 
to meet them hunting for beetles, slugs, and snails. If you do 
not meet them, rest certain food is scarce, and they have “made 
tracks.” 
High walls are nothing to a pig, especially if there be a fruit 
tree to aid in climbing. But it is in the house that hedgehogs 
are at their best in the matter of surprises and terrors to the 
timid. We have two, and lately they have done some strange 
things and caused some commotion. They are supposed to 
live in the garden, which is surrounded by walls nine feet high, 
on which are fruit trees. One pig was brought back the other 
day from a house two gardens off! The other was put in the 
kitchen, to hunt Blatta orientalis, of which they are fond to the 
extent of gluttony. Next day the servants wanted to remove 
the hog to his garden home, but the question was where to find 
him. Cupboards and every conceivable place were routed out 
without a find. Later in the day, on removing a Dutch oven 
from a cupboard and lifting the lid, there was the pig wrapped 
up in a dishcloth, sound asleep. He had opened the lid, 
carried in the cloth, probably on his spines, and made himself 
comfortable. 
The weird noises a hedgehog makes in the dead of night, 
when hunting Blatta, are very terrifying if you are ignorant of 
the cause. My bedroom is over the kitchen, and I often hear 
the most curious sounds when a pig is on the warpath. A 
noise as if chairs and tins were being moved; just for all the 
world like some person about. Several times this has been the 
only hint that the pigs were not out of doors. The other night 
I was called down about ii p.m. to investigate the cause of a 
“ mysterious noise” in the dining-room. Certainly there was a 
curious jarring grating noise in the room. I located the sound 
as coming from the sideboard, and on opening one of the cup- 
boards I found a hedgehog with his front paws on a cheese dish, 
and his snout in the cheese : as he refreshed himself the cover 
rattled on the edge of the dish. Having got inside, he had 
lifted the heavy dish-cover. He was at once removed to the 
garden. 
A few evenings later there was a great noise in a cupboard 
under a staircase. A fox-terrier was called in, in case of rats, 
but on the door being opened, behold the pig again I 
