SPECTATOR makes no apology for returning to the subject of hedgehogs, this time in the context of litter.

One of his friends got up for work the other morning to find a hedgehog blundering around the back garden, blindly bumping into things because its head was stuck fast in a discarded ice cream carton. A case of nightly foraging which clearly went badly wrong on this occasion.

It must have been a comical sight, yet a more serious situation for the prickly creature whose spines had become so embedded in the neck of the carton that it could have died from hunger and thirst had it remained undiscovered.

Only a few minutes of human effort were needed to work the carton free and send the relieved hedgehog scuttling on its way.

The countryside suffers from litter in more ways than one.

Farewell Fergie

TAKE off your hats and bow your heads to mark the passing of one of the greats of British farming. From last weekend, after almost 60 years, three million tractors and, more recently, simply tractor parts, Massey Ferguson at Coventry is no more. American owner Agco builds its tractors in France and Brazil nowadays.

For those of us whose first experience behind the wheel of anything with an engine was in the kitchen-colander seat of a little grey Fergie, it's a sad thought - except that the doughty little grey veteran refuses to die and can still command a good few quid in a deadstock auction.

Found in the backs of cartsheds, lovingly restored to running order and tidiness, they'll probably still appear in displays of vintage machinery long after their brighter, more sophisticated descendants have hit the scrapyard.

Lesson for today

FROM Bedale High School comes a missive extolling the undoubted talents of Dr John Critchlow, head teacher, and Dr John Truman, head of history, who have retired with 38 years' combined service.

The fly in the ointment finally attacks when the author of the press release involved frankly admits that he has no idea how to spell the name of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, leaving our reporter to fill in the proper version instead of the mangled one supplied therein.

Surely such a blunder could not have been made by someone who teaches recent history?

No, it was committed by the person who sent the press release, someone who normally teaches PE.

The lesson for today is that potential journalists should always check not only their facts but the simplest of spellings.