The Natural History of Selborne, 1879/Letter 27
LETTER XXVII.
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 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.[e1] 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.
Hedgehog.
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 conceal 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 pilaris), which I think is particular enough; this bird, though it sits on trees in the day-time, and procures the greatest part of its food from white-thorn hedges; yea, moreover, builds on very high trees, as may be seen by the fauna suecica; yet always appears with us to roost on the ground. They are seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to settle and nestle among the heath on our forest.[e2] And besides, the larkers in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the wheat stubbles; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red-wings in the hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why these birds, in the matter of roosting, should differ from all their congeners, and from themselves also with respect to their proceedings by day, is a fact for which I am by no means able to account.
I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose-deer; but in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way; my little intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my own observations at home.
notes to letter xxvii.
e1 ↑ Hedgehogs are indiscriminate feeders upon flesh or vegetables, insects or eggs. It is persistently asserted by country people, and as persistently denied by naturalists, that the hedgehog will suck the teats of sleeping cows. That it is occasionally up to mischief the following note copied from the Field of May 24th, 1879, will show:—
"Some few days ago a farmer had an ewe caught in some brambles, and when he went to see his sheep in the morning, he found that something had eaten the ewe's udder off. Of course he killed the sheep at once, and, as he was taking it home in the cart, I thought it was a strange case, and got up into the cart and examined the part that had been bitten. I saw the marks of small teeth on the skin, and told the farmer I thought it was a hedgehog. I set some traps where the blood had been spilt on the ground, and strewed some small portions of half-decayed liver round about the traps for one or two nights. About the third night the portions of liver were all gone. I left the traps set, and strewed more liver, and this morning I had got a very large hedgehog, a little over 2lb. weight. I skinned him, and examined the stomach, and found in it some soft dark-brown pulpy substance, mixed with a small quantity of wool.
"W. R. SMITH, Gamekeeper,
"Okehampton, N. Devon"e2 ↑ The fieldfare and red-wing nest among the pines and firs of Norway and Sweden, and arrive in England in large flocks in the winter.