With all this, we have not quite done with the diet, real or supposed, of this curious little animal. It is a common belief in most parts of England that the Hedgehogs will visit the Cows during the night and suck their milk, leaving but a scanty supply for the milkmaid in the morning. There seems, however, to be no satisfactory evidence of the commission of this crime.
When disturbed in its excursions the Hedgehog has the habit of rolling itself up into a ball, with the head and legs tucked carefully away under the belly, and the whole exposed surface completely enclosed by the spiny skin of the back. This is effected by the contraction of a most complicated system of cutaneous muscles, the most important of which, called the orbicularis panniculi, forming a broad band encircling the body, draws together the edges of the spiny part of the skin towards the centre of the ventral side of the body, thus forming a sort of prickly bag within which the whole body and limbs of the animal are enclosed. When thus arranged, by the action of the cutaneous muscles the whole of the spines of the upper surface are strongly and firmly erected, making a fence which suffices to protect the Hedgehog from the attacks of nearly all his enemies. Scarcely any Dogs can be found with pluck enough to make a successful attack upon a rolled-up Hedgehog, although it is said that some Dogs and Foxes have a trick by which to get at him, founded on the fact that a jet of water poured into the small aperture within which the head of the animal is concealed will cause him to unroll himself at once. The same power of contraction serves the Hedgehog in good stead in protecting him from other perils. If he finds himself falling down a precipice or from the top of a wall, or down a very steep slope, he immediately makes himself into a ball, and in this form will fall from very considerable heights (eighteen or twenty feet) without receiving the least injury; indeed, Hedgehogs have been observed more than once voluntarily to throw themselves down considerable distances, contracting in this fashion. On reaching the bottom they simply opened themselves, and walked off none the worse for the fall.
The voice of the Hedgehog is a sound intermediate between a grunt and a squeak; Shakespeare, as is well known, calls it “whining.” When kept in houses for destroying insects, it is said frequently to make itself disagreeable by its noise at night. In many places, both in England and on the Continent, the Hedgehog is eaten, but chiefly, it is said, by gipsies and tramps. The mode of cooking adopted, we believe, is roasting the animal in his skin, and the flesh is generally said to be excellent. According to M. Cherblanc, the French gipsies envelop the Hedgehogs in a sort of paste of clay, and then cook them over the fire, turning them from time to time until the clay is quite dry and hard, when the roast is considered to be perfect. This earthen envelope is then broken and removed, carrying the spines with it.
Notwithstanding their formidable armour, the Hedgehogs have other enemies besides man. Dogs will attack them, but not often with success, unless we may believe in their employing the ruse already alluded to, which is also said to have suggested itself to the cunning mind of Reynard. But the Foxes are said to adopt another mode of dealing with their wished-for prey. When they meet with a rolled-up Hedgehog they will, it is said, roll him along till they come to some water, into which they drop the unfortunate little animal, and then seize him during his struggles to escape drowning. On the continent of Europe the Great Horned Owl or Eagle Owl (Bubo maximus) is described as an inveterate enemy of the Hedgehog.
The female Hedgehog goes with young about seven weeks. Before bringing her progeny into the world, she selects some more or less sheltered situation in a hedge-bottom or thicket, or sometimes in a corn-field, in which she constructs a nest of moss and leaves, so well put together, that even when otherwise unprotected, its roof suffices to throw off the rain. The young, which vary in number from three to seven or eight, are, when first born, about three inches long, white, blind, and quite naked, except that they already possess the rudiments of their spines, which are then quite soft and flexible. In about four-and-twenty hours the spines have grown to a length of one-sixth of an inch, and acquired some hardness. The young animals, according to Gilbert White, have little hanging ears, and he adds that “they can in part draw their skin down over their faces, but are not able to contract themselves into a ball.” In about a month the young have acquired nearly the colour of their parents, and are then taken out by the mother to feed, although she still suckles them for a time.
In captivity, if kindly treated, the Hedgehog soon becomes familiar. He takes readily to almost any diet, and, according to Dr. Ball, he will even partake of intoxicating liquors, which, curiously enough, seem to have the effect of making him immediately quite tame, after passing through a period of inebriety, during which his gestures and proceedings have a most ludicrous resemblance to those of a drunken man.
THE LONG-EARED HEDGEHOG.[262]
This species has the ears much larger and the muzzle longer than in the Common Hedgehog, and its legs also are longer and not so stout. The tail is very short. The spines, which are marked with from twenty to twenty-two little furrows, are white at the base, brown in the middle, and yellowish at the tip; the head is covered with hair of a dirty whitish colour; and on each side of the mouth there are four rows of long brown whiskers. This animal is only about two-thirds the size of the European Hedgehog. It is found in the western part of Asiatic Russia, especially about the Caspian, in Tartary, and Siberia. It does not occur in Persia, according to Mr. Blanford, although included by Schmarda in his list of the animals of Mesopotamia. It inhabits the province of Astrakhan, in south Russia, which makes it a European species. Very little is known of the habits of the Long-eared Hedgehog, but from that little it would appear to agree in most, if not all respects, with its European relative.
Several other species of Hedgehogs have been described, the majority of them from the Asiatic continent, reaching even to the district of the Amoor, from which Schrenck described one under the name of Erinaceus amurensis, which is supposed by Mr. Bell to be a variety of the Common Hedgehog. Mr. Blanford describes a peculiar Persian species with large ears and long spines (E. macracanthus). and Mr. Blyth another from Candahar (E. megalotis). Several Indian species are noticed by various authors, and some of these seem to be widely distributed, such as