32 
NATURE NOTES 
The previous few nights nothing had been seen of either pig, 
but the patter of little feet on the oil-cloth in a passage had 
been heard : though every search was made no hedgehog could 
be found. But on some one entering the dining-room in the 
dark later on, they “lifted something” with the foot and sent 
it flying some distance. On turning up the gas this “ some- 
thing ” proved to be a hedgehog ; where he had hidden all the 
evening is only known to himself. Later he was hard at work 
with the Blatta, as the noise from the kitchen testified, in the 
dead of night. 
To-day he was not to be found, but this evening a great 
scraping and scratching on a closed cupboard door announced 
that Mr. Pig was within. I brought him up to my own rooms 
to have the run of my bathroom and a room I use as a “ dark 
room.” He has just with great noise tumbled or rolled down 
a flight of twelve stairs, and I have brought him up again to 
the landing where, after coughing and sneezing, he has made 
off at a quick run for the bathroom. But while one pig has 
been causing some excitement here, the other has been the 
means of upsetting the family next door. 
It was 2 a.m. this morning, when the young man next door 
aroused the household with cries that a rat was in his room, 
that he dare not get out of bed for fear of the rodent, and 
imploring aid. Aid came ; and there was, not a rat, but our 
other hedgehog, running about the room. This pig had climbed 
our wall, got into the next garden, thence into the house and 
actually up two flights of stairs to the bedroom. Imagine the 
tableau if the }'Oung man had got out of bed in the dark, and 
put his foot on the hedgehog’s spines ! 
Where they will get next, and what they will do remains to 
be seen. Having written thus far last night, I must add now 
that I had a look for the hedgehog this morning. I knew the 
search would not be difficult because of the few hiding-places 
up here. I was of course mistaken ; not a sign of the hog any- 
where. At last I noticed that the carpet on the upright of the 
bottom stair was much stretched, and there inside the carpet 
was the pig. He must have used much force to stretch the 
carpet between the rods, and even then could not roll up, but 
lay stretched out. I got him out and put him in the bathroom, 
but this he did not like, there being too much light and no dark 
corner ; so I stuffed some paper in an old fish-basket, and he 
is now asleep in that. 
Hedgehogs hate the light and will do all they can to get 
away from it. They like warmth and will creep inside an oven 
at night, only to be roasted alive later. Like all animals they 
want water, and this should always be within their reach. 
If you keep hogs for hunting Blatta, let them have a night 
in, and two or three out ; for, if there be many cockroaches, 
and the hog is always kept in the kitchen, they will “ do for” 
the pig, death being caused by over-stuffing. In winter the 
