Good to Eat at Michaelmas
That fine writer of Scottish wildlife, Mortimer Batten, says he has seen a hedgehog run almost with the speed of a rabbit.
In addition to its sprinting powers, a hedgehog is a respectable climber, and is capable of swimming fair distances.
Perhaps, like the quills of a porcupine, the spines of a hedgehog help to buoy it up in the water.
One other gymnastic accomplishment of the hedgehog must be mentioned- despite its spines it can scratch its own back! This operation must often be necessary, for hedgehogs almost invariably act as host to a battalion of fleas.
Pick up a hedgehog and place it in a spotless white handkerchief, and when you later unwrap it you will find the surface covered with small black dots, every one of them alive and kicking! Hedgehogs are good to eat, as the gypsies found out long ago.
Their method of preparing this little animal for table is to cover its body with wet clay and place it on an open fire until it is roasted.
When cooked in this way the spines come away with the hard clay covering and the flesh is ready to eat.
The 'best "season" for hedgehogs, according to the gypsies, is Michaelmas, when the animals have been eating the crab apples that fall from the trees.
The flesh is said to taste like tender young chicken.
Naturalists have spilt quite a drop of ink arguing about two alleged feeding habits of the hedgehog.
One tale is that the animal drinks milk direct from 'he udders of cows and goats.
The hedgehog certainly does not do this while the beasts are standing up, for the short stature of the hedgehog and the shapes of its mouth are against such possibility.
There is a fair amount of evidence to suggest that a hedgehog may imbibe milk from the beasts when they are lying down.
The hedgehog's known fondness for milk.
They sometimes knock over milk-bottles outside houses in endeavors to get at the milk, and the fact that milk often runs from the udders of milk animals are factors to remember in this connection.
The other alleged feeding habit of the hedgehog goes back to the days of Pliny, or farther.
It is as interesting a bit of animal lore as is to be found in the whole realm of natural history.
Writing in his "Natural History," published about 75 A.
D.
, Pliny records the legend in these words: "Hedgehogs lay up food for the winter.
Rolling themselves on apples as they lie on the ground, they pierce one with their quills and then take up another in the mouth, and so carry them into the hollows of trees.
" From then until today the story has cropped up from time to time.
The hedgehog and fruit legend, as one may call it, was a favorite subject with the compilers of the bestiaries and other finely illuminated manuscripts of medieval times.
In addition to its sprinting powers, a hedgehog is a respectable climber, and is capable of swimming fair distances.
Perhaps, like the quills of a porcupine, the spines of a hedgehog help to buoy it up in the water.
One other gymnastic accomplishment of the hedgehog must be mentioned- despite its spines it can scratch its own back! This operation must often be necessary, for hedgehogs almost invariably act as host to a battalion of fleas.
Pick up a hedgehog and place it in a spotless white handkerchief, and when you later unwrap it you will find the surface covered with small black dots, every one of them alive and kicking! Hedgehogs are good to eat, as the gypsies found out long ago.
Their method of preparing this little animal for table is to cover its body with wet clay and place it on an open fire until it is roasted.
When cooked in this way the spines come away with the hard clay covering and the flesh is ready to eat.
The 'best "season" for hedgehogs, according to the gypsies, is Michaelmas, when the animals have been eating the crab apples that fall from the trees.
The flesh is said to taste like tender young chicken.
Naturalists have spilt quite a drop of ink arguing about two alleged feeding habits of the hedgehog.
One tale is that the animal drinks milk direct from 'he udders of cows and goats.
The hedgehog certainly does not do this while the beasts are standing up, for the short stature of the hedgehog and the shapes of its mouth are against such possibility.
There is a fair amount of evidence to suggest that a hedgehog may imbibe milk from the beasts when they are lying down.
The hedgehog's known fondness for milk.
They sometimes knock over milk-bottles outside houses in endeavors to get at the milk, and the fact that milk often runs from the udders of milk animals are factors to remember in this connection.
The other alleged feeding habit of the hedgehog goes back to the days of Pliny, or farther.
It is as interesting a bit of animal lore as is to be found in the whole realm of natural history.
Writing in his "Natural History," published about 75 A.
D.
, Pliny records the legend in these words: "Hedgehogs lay up food for the winter.
Rolling themselves on apples as they lie on the ground, they pierce one with their quills and then take up another in the mouth, and so carry them into the hollows of trees.
" From then until today the story has cropped up from time to time.
The hedgehog and fruit legend, as one may call it, was a favorite subject with the compilers of the bestiaries and other finely illuminated manuscripts of medieval times.
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