THEHEDGEHOG.
This little animal greatly resembles the porcupine, though in miniature, his body, being armed and fortified all over with small sharp-pointed quills, which is an admirable defence for him against his enemies. It has been asserted by some writers, and is a notion commonly received, that it will suck the milk of cows in the night-time, while they are asleep in the fields, and bite the dug in such manner that the cow never recovers, but this opinion I believe to be false and erroneous, having never been able, after many years strict enquiry and observance, to discover a single instance of it; their chief food consists in acorns,crabs and roots, in grubbing up of which latter they damage the ground; you may catch them by setting a hutch trap under the wall or pale of any park or warren, as these animals will run under them in the night a considerable way, having taken several of them by this method in the course of a week. I recommend it therefore as the most preferable, as few dogs will venture to kill them, their quills being so extremely sharp, and when they find they are pursued or attacked, they immediately roll themselves up round as a globe or ball, and lie as if they were dead; but put them into a puddle or pan of water, and they will expand themselves immediately. I know of no particular bait they are fond of.