Urchin
Hedgehogs, despite having been present in Britain since the Pleistocene, are relative newcomers to Scotland. Pennant noted at the end of 18th century that hedgehogs ‘were not found beyond Tay perhaps not beyond Forth.’ However, in Perthshire the hedgehog was reported in the Old Statistical Account, for example from Clunie: ‘The wild quadrupeds here are also numerous. We have the urchin or hedgehog.’
Even so, by the mid 19th century the hedgehog was far from common in the Highlands as indicated by New Statistical Account records. ‘The hedgehog was unknown until recently’ (Banff ) And at Alloa ‘The hedgehog was not known as an inhabitant of this parish when the last Account was written. It is now found in the woods.’ And at Strathdon: ‘The hedgehog was unknown ten or fifteen years ago, but is now common.’ |
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Hedgehogs have several peculiar behaviour traits. Self-anointing consists of profuse salivation induced by strange objects such as a piece of trash like a cigarette end, a piece of wood or paper. When the animal has sufficient foaming saliva it anoints its spines with its tongue. This may be an attempt to rid itself of ticks and fleas, of which it carries many. Another bizarre behaviour is circling. A hedgehog may suddenly, and for no apparent reason, run in circles for as much as half an hour. This is startlingly eye-catching yet has not been reported in early records. It is thought that it may be caused by a virus infection of the brain which has only recently come about.
Its instinctive defensive reaction of rolling up makes this mammal one of the most frequent road casualties. As a boy I often found drowned hedgehogs in my boyhood garden pond and was told they could not swim, however Edward Millais, an early 20th century naturalist and artist, shows an excellent drawing of one swimming and avers they are good swimmers.
The hedgehog’s food consists of insects, slugs, snails, worms and eggs (he latter especially and unfortunately in Uist!) This innocent, although proscribed animal, has been most absurdly accused of sucking cows. It feeds altogether upon slugs which, (Millais tells us) it rolls with its paws on grass before eating to remove slime. It also eats snakes. Millais observed one take an adder by its tail; the snake wounded itself trying to strike hedgehog who then ate it, biting it serially along body.
There is an old joke that hedgehogs make love carefully! Gilbert White worried at how the Mother gave birth: ‘I procured a litter of four or five young hedge-hogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old ... No doubt their spines are soft and flexible at the time of birth, or else the poor dam would have but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturition: but it is plain that they soon harden; for these little pigs had such stiff prickles on their backs and sides as would easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled with caution.’
Hedgehogs were regarded as vermin with 3d paid for them in the early 19th century and in the vermin list of Breadalbane territories 1891-1901 2880 were accounted for. A kinder view was taken by Beatrix Potter (Mrs William Heelis,1866-1943) who holidayed at Dalguise House where it was her father’s practice to rent a summer house for three months every year between 1871 and 1881. In 1892 Potter immortalised Mrs Tiggy-winkle, her archetypal hedgehog, who was said to be based on a Dalguise washerwoman.
Hedgehog is eaten in some part of the Continent, and occasionally by ‘rustics in the middle parts of England... some considering it excellent food and others declaring it to be ill-flavoured.’ It was a popular dish among Romany folk who cooked it by rolling it in a ball of clay and thrusting it in the embers of a fire. The baked clay removed all the spines leaving what was described as a tasty meal. Hedgehogs, because they ate snakes, were believed to be immune to adder venom and their fat was used by gypsy folk as a salve against a bite from a viper.
Once, as a boy, I had to kill and skin a hedgehog for a relative who, hearing that they were delicious, wanted to try one. She was very non-committal about the resulting dish but, though I prided myself on skinning animals, the hedgehog was so difficult I vowed never to skin one again.
© Robin Hull
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