THE HEDGEHOG. 
387 
infant. In winter, we find them very frequently 
laid up in hybernacula underneath woodstacks 
and such like warm situations. I am not aware that 
during the cold season they stir out at any time, 
but it seems by a date above mentioned that their 
retirement does not commence till the inclement 
season has fairly set in ; at what time they again 
usually come forth I am not aware, but’perhaps as 
they do not provide a store they do so early in 
spring, and I have reasons to think in March. 
When hedgehogs are engaged in searching for their 
food,—that is worms, beetles, snails, &c. they glide 
along the ground with tolerable swiftness, directing 
their noses all the while toward the earth, and fre¬ 
quently inclining them laterally, just in the manner 
of a spaniel. I have known cruel persons throw 
urchins into ponds with the view of drowning them, 
but if not greatly injured by previous maltreatment 
they never fail to swim readily towards the sides for 
escape. Whilst nature has provided ample means 
for speedy flight from danger in a vast number of 
her creatures, others have been curiously endowed 
with mechanisms and instinctive actions to preclude 
injury or to elude the cognisance of enemies. The 
present animal when it perceives the movement of 
a dog or man, or any suspicious object, stops sud¬ 
denly and remains motionless, then, if its enemy 
approach it slightly contracts itself, and finally 
when touched it withdraws its head and limbs 
closely under its body, and presents altogether an 
oblong and rounded figure. One species of Armadillo 
rolls itself up similarly when molested. The Slow- 
worm (anguis fragilis) though generally inert and 
almost motionless when discovered in its lurking 
places, seems to have the property of stiffening its 
body when touched and interfered with, and may thus 
be knocked about without its altering this assumed 
appearance of a bit of crooked stick. Something of 
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