o not remember to be discernible in the old ones. They
can, in part, at this age draw their skin down over their faces, but are
not able to contract themselves into a ball, as they do, for the sake of
defence, when full grown. The reason, I suppose, is, because the curious
muscle that enables the creature to roll itself up in a ball was not then
arrived at its full tone and firmness. Hedgehogs make a deep and warm
_hybernaculum_ with leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves for
the winter: but I never could find that they stored in any winter
provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do.

I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare (_turdus
pilaris_) which I think is particular enough; this bird, though it sits
on trees in the daytime, and procures the greatest part of its food from
white-thorn hedges, yea, moreover, builds on very high trees, as may be
seen by the _fauna suecica_; yet always appears with us to roost on the
ground. They are seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to
settle and nestle among the heath on our forest. And besides, the
larkers, in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the
wheat stubbles; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red-wings in the
hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why these birds, in the
matter of roosting, should differ from all their congeners, and from
themselves also with respect to their proceedings by day, is a fact for
which I am by no means able to account.

I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the _moose-deer_; but in
general foreign animals fall seldom in my way; my little intelligence is
confined to the narrow sphere of my own observations at home.

LETTER XXVIII.

SELBORNE, _March_, 1770.

On Michaelmas Day, 1768, I managed to get a sight of the female moose
belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood; but was greatly
disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find that it died, after
having appeared in a languishing way for some time, on the morning
before. However, understanding that it was not stripped, I proceeded to
examine this rare quadruped; I found it in an old greenhouse, slung under
the belly and chin by ropes, and in a standing posture; but, though it
had been dead for so short a time, it was in so putrid a state that the
stench was hardly supportable. The grand distinction between this deer,
and any other species that