SELBORNE, _Feb. 22nd_, 1770.
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. 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.
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 daytime, 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. 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.