Hedgehogs

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Folkmanis Hedgehog Schleich Hedgehog

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Regarding the hedgehog, Pliny writes:

Hedgehogs also make their provision before-hand of meat for winter, in this wise. They wallow and roll themselves upon apples and such fruit lying under foot, and so catch them up with their prickles, and one more besides they take in their mouth, & so carrie them into hollow trees. By stopping one or other of their holes, men know when the wind turneth, and is changed from North to South. When they perceive one hunting of them, they draw their mouths & feet close togither, with all their belly part, where the skin hath a thin down: & no pricks at all to do harme, and so roll themselves as round as a foot-ball, that neither dog nor man can come by any thing but their sharpe-pointed prickles.

So soon as they see themselves past all hope to escape, they let their water go and pisse upon themselves. Now this urine of theirs hath a poisonous qualitie to rot their skin and prickles, for which they know well enough that they be chased and taken. And therefore it is a secret and a special pollicie, not to hunt them before they have let their urine go; and then their skin is verie good, for which chiefly they are hunted: otherwise it is naught ever after and so rotten, that it will not hang togither, but fall in peeces: all the pricks shed off, as being putrified, yea although they should escape away from the dogs and live still: and this is the cause that they never bepisse and drench themselves with this pestilent excrement, but in extremitie and utter despaire: for they cannot abide themselves their own urine, of so venimous a qualitie it is, and so hurtfull to their owne bodie; and doe what they can to spare themselves, attending the utmost time of extremitie, insomuch as they are ready to be taken before they do it.

When the Urchin is caught alive, the devise to make him open again in length, is to besprinkle him with hot water; and then by hanging at one of their hin-feet without meat they die with famine: otherwise it is not possible to kil them and save their case or skin.

There be writers who bash not to say, That this kind of beast (were not those pricks) is good for nothing, and may well be missed of men: & that the soft fleece of wooll that sheep bear, but for these pricks were superfluous & to no purpose bestowed upon mankind: for with the rough skin of these Urchins, are brushes and rubbers made to brush & make clean our garments. And in very truth, many have gotten great gaine and profit by this commoditie and merchandise, and namely, with their craftie devise of monopolies, that all might passe through their hands only: notwithstanding there hath not ben any one disorder more repressed, and reformation sought by sundry edicts and acts of the Senate in that behalfe: every prince hath been continually troubled hereabout with grievous complaints out of all provinces.

While you'll see many hedgehogs gathering apples in the manner that Pliny describes – or, as is written in Femina (c. 1400), “Ne þe yrchon loued no þyng more þanne take apples þat leth lowe” – you'll also see some examples of hedgehogs gathering grapes in the same manner, as Isidore of Seville describes:

After it cuts a bunch of grapes off a vine it rolls over them so it can carry the grapes to its young on its quills.

This peculiar behavior is also observed in the Aberdeen Bestiary:

The hedgehog has a certain kind of foresight: as it tears off a grape, it rolls backwards on it and so delivers it to its young.

For more on medieval hedgehogs, see Medieval Bestiary: Hedgehog or The Distinguished Pedigree of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.