Aug. 26—I have always liked Hedgehogs but owing to their nocturnal habits have seen very little of them. 'This countryside must be a Hedgehogs' paradise with its large supply of beetles and other succulent morsels (not forgetting the eggs of ground-nesting birds) and I
water-holes in the hope of seeing one—for these have kept a sharp look-out at convenient animals are great water drinkers and may often be seen assuaging their thirst in the early morning hours....but all in vain: my sole reward has been a report from a friend who has an artificial pool which proved the undoing of one thirsty animal: the concrete edge of the Pool is some inches above the water, and the poor creature, leaning over to reach the tempting liquid, over-balanced and was found drowned: hogs of any kind were never good swimmers! But this incident at least had the result of bringing forth a good (and perfectly true) story, which is worth recording. In the depth of winter a man found a large snowball surrounded by the pad-marks of some unknown animal—and with no other evidence to account for its existence: seeking an explanation the man dug into the snowball and found in its centre....a curled-up Hedgehog! Then the explanation became clear: the hungry animal had dug up a hibernating Hedgehog and started to roll it, probably with the hope of making it uncurl (but the hedgehog went on sleeping); the more it was rolled, the more the snow stuck...until the whole mass was too heavy to move and so was abandoned. Finally the man took the snowball home and thawed it out—but still the hedgehog went on sleeping—and continued to do so until the next Spring when it woke up and was released! Quite a happy story, but one which should not be told to gamekeepers who kill hedgehogs on sight because of the egg-stealing habit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.