The Hedgehog is often domesticated for the purpose of clearing kitchens of
beetles, crickets, and cockroaches, and at this it is exceedingly expert. When in
confinement it is very partial to milk, which predilection may in some manner
account for the ancient theory that these animals will suck the udders of cows at
pasture. Certainly Hedgehogs are very fond of hunting the dung and the recent
‘ beds ’ of cows for the insects they contain, but it may still be possible, as Sir Harry
Johnston suggests,1 that the sucking or licking of the cows’ teats is by no means a wild
supposition. Cows in full lactation often have drops of milk clinging to the udders,
and a Hedgehog snouting round for insects might well come across this unexpected
delicacy and lick it off. A Hedgehog tastes most things that come in its way.
The Hedgehog hides for the greater part of the day in holes, dense undergrowth,
or behind rocks, emerging in the evening or after nightfall to feed. In the autumn
it is often seen abroad during the day. In April, according to Mr. R. Service,
the Hedgehog is often diurnal in its habits, coming abroad in the sunshine, and in
July, during the heat of summer, it is frequently abroad long before sundown. On
July 20, 1901, when the temperature had risen to 910, Mr. Service saw numbers
abroad by 6.30 p.m. One writer says they are extraordinarily active, and travel all
night at the rate of six miles an hour. This is quite contrary to my experience.
They are very slow movers, and in places where food is to be found they progress
very gradually and work the ground with great care, only travelling a little, faster
along paths and bare places. The animals can, however, run, and move with
considerable swiftness in a curious shuffling fashion. I am convinced that they
have certain runs and passes which are used by them after the manner of the shrews,
although they are not gregarious and migratory like those little animals. They
are also subject to some disease in the autumn and spring, of which we at present
know nothing, similar to that which attacks the Soricidce, for we frequently find
numbers dead at these seasons.
Late in November or early in December, according to the season, the Hedgehog
retires to its winter quarters, where it sleeps until the following spring. Most bats
wake up and move about in their hibernacula, and rodents create stores and only
sleep intermittently, while badgers move according to temperature, so that the
hibernation of these animals cannot be said to be complete; but when the
Hedgehog retires to its warm .couch of moss and leaves, it seldom quits it until
the spring sun has sufficiently warmed the surface of the earth. The date when the
Hedgehog retires is not regular, and it is much later than is the case with many other
1 British Mammals, p. 58.
winter sleepers. Mr. R. Service1 gives as an average for the last appearance
November 22, taking his dates from many years’ observations; but he has seen the
animal abroad in December and January when the temperature was high. In the
‘ Irish Naturalist ’ (1904, pp. 84-87) Mr. C. B. Moffat supplies a table of observations
on the night appearances of bats, hedgehogs, and frogs during the winter of 1901-
1902. He noticed Hedgehogs on fifteen nights in November, nine in December, four
in January, but not on any in February. He found no evidence that warmth had any
effect in waking up the Hedgehog, but it showed itself frequently on cold and frosty
nights, even in December and January. He says, ‘ It was almost invariably on cold
nights that I met the Hedgehog.’ He found that the Hedgehog was somewhat late
in coming out, generally not appearing until an hour after sunset; these observations,
however, refer only to winter. The hibernacula are usually situated in holes, stumps
of trees, recesses in walls, and behind sheds in gardens. Hedgehogs will, however,
on some occasions shift their winter quarters. Mr. Oxley Grabham, writing on this
subject,2 says\ 1 In my experience this is quite true (that they do not move in winter),
for I once had, for three or four years, a score of Hedgehogs in a walled-in garden;
and, whether the winter was mild or severe, they never moved when once they had
taken up their winter quarters, which were always in the manure covering a
strawberry bed, and in that laid at the roots of a large patch of lavender; but
audi alteram partem : a year or two ago, some unfamiliar footprints being seen in the
snow, they were tracked to a thick hedgerow, and from a mass of dead leaves
Erinaceus europeeus was unearthed in quite a lively condition; and in January
I knew of a fine old Hedgehog which periodically issued forth from its lair in the
bottom of a thick fence, the grass leading to the same being all trodden down and
a regular track made. Sometimes it was absent from home, and at others cosily
rolled up in the middle of its domicile; but I am afraid it must have resented my
visits and taken up other quarters, for it is now missing.’
Like most of the Insectivora, the Hedgehog generally breeds twice in the
year, the first litter being born in late May or June, and the second in August
or September. In a well-roofed nest of any sort of dry leaves the female produces
usually from five to seven young ones. At birth they are blind and covered with
soft, white, flexible spines, which in the course of three weeks harden and assume
the adult colouration. The period of gestation is very short, not exceeding one
month. Young Hedgehogs are about three parts grown by the time winter sets
in, and seem to come out of their winter sleep in very good condition.
1 Ann, Scot. Nat. H ist. 1901, p. 79. * Zoologist\ 1896, pp. 76-98.