defcript in England, and what I have never been able yet to
procure) retires or migrates very early in the fummer: it alfa
ranges very high for it’s food, feeding in a different region of the
air; and that is the reafon I never could procure one. Now this is
exadtly the cafe with the fwifts; for they take their food in a
more exalted region than the other fpecies, and are very feldom
feen hawking for flies near the ground, or over the furface of the
water. From hence I would conclude that thefe hirundines, and
the larger bats, are fupported by fome forts of high-flying gnats,
fcarabs, or pbaltenee, that are of Ihort continuance; and that the fhort
flay of thefe ftrangers is regulated by the defedt of their food.
By my journal it appears that curlews clamoured on to QElobers
the thirty-firft; fince which I have not feen or heard any. Swallows
were obferved on to November the third..
L E T T E R XXVII.
T O T H E S A M E .
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Feb. za, 1770.
H e o g e - h o g s abound in my gardens and fields. The manner in
which they eat their roots of the plantain in my grafs-walks is very
curious : with their upper mandible, which is much longer than
their lower, they bore under the plant, and fo eat the root off upwards,
leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In this refpedt they
are
are ferviceable, as they deftroy a very troublefome weed; but .y
they deface the walks in fome meafore by digging little round
holes. It appears, by the dung that they drop upon the turf,
that beetles are no inconfiderable part of their food. In June laft I
procured a litter of four or five young hedge-hogs, which appeared
to be about five or fix days old : they, I find, like puppies, are
born blind, and could not fee when they came to my hands. No
doubt their fpines are foft and flexible at the time of their birth, or
elfe the poor dam would have but a bad time of it in the critical moment
of parturition: but it is plain that they foon harden; for thefe
little pigs had fuch ftiff prickles on their backs and fides as would
eafily have fetched blood, had they not been handled with caution.
Their fpines are quite white at this age; and they have little hanging
ears, which I do not remember to Be difcernible in the old
ones. They can, in part, at this age draw their fkin down over
their faces ; but are not able to contrail :themfelves into a ball, as
they do, for the fake of defence, when full grown. The reafon, I
fuppofe, is,, becaufe the curious mufcle that enables the creature
to roll itfelf up in a ball was not then arrived at it’s full tone
and firmnefs. Hedge-hogs make a deep and warm hybernaculum
with leaves and mofs, in which they conceal themfelves for the
winter: but I never could find that they ftored in any winter
provifion, as fome quadrupeds certainly do.
I have difcovered an anecdote with refpecl to the fieldfare
(turdus-pilaris), which I think is particular enough : this bird;
though it. fits on trees in the day-time, and procures the greateft
part of it’s food from white-thorn hedges; yea, moreover, builds
on very high trees; as may be feen by the fauna fuecica; yet
always appears with us to rooft on the ground. They are feen to
come in flocks juft before it is dark, and to fettle and neftle
among