A Garden Lover Few of us see a live hedgehog—though
their bodies are not uncommon on the road—more than once in a blue moon— however seldom that may be ; but it is a very common animal indeed. In some districts it abounds. I know two places where it swarms ; one very thinly populated, the other in the midst of a district, not so far from London, where building is frequent and free. It dwells in alinost suburban gardens, and I am inclined to think that such semi-suburban districts definitely encourage its multiplication. Perhaps the compara- tive safety increases its ratio of breeding. At any rate I know one garden where it bred last year in late summer as well as in the spring, an occurrence for which I can find no evidence in the text-books. One of the animals seen crossing a lawn- tennis lawn so terrified some inmates of the house, who had not known that such wild animals existed, that the householder was ardently entreated to repel the invader with his gun. Whether it does any particular good I do not know, though some people like to have it about the garden as a repressor of slugs. It is hostile to snakes, but then in most parts of England snakes are themselves harmless, and even beneficial. Its eradication would be a labour of Hercules, thanks in part to its preference for gardens and places where no keeper is found. Its scent, however, is strong, and many dogs find it more alluring than any other. I once owned a very staid spaniel that was goaded into loud excitement by the presence of a hedgehog. She would retrieve them without paying any attention whatever to the spines.
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