8io 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



time for our friend the badger to come out and see how the world 

 looks in the moonlight. 



He has left his hole, and there he stands in the full light of 

 the moon, the great limbs of the oak throwing checkered shadows 

 around him on the greensward and on the exposed surface of the 

 chalk here and there. The greater portion of the sides of the 

 hollow nearest his home is covered with foxgloves and trailing 

 bramble. He looks round about him for a few seconds, and 

 sniffs, just to find out if anything peculiar is in the air ; then, 

 finding matters all right, as he thinks, he gives himself a scratch 

 or two and a good shake, and deliberately waddles off to get some- 

 thing to eat a very easy matter at this time of the year, for on a 

 warm summer night all kinds of creatures are about, and he 

 makes their acquaintance much to his own satisfaction, if not to 

 theirs. *. 



Little does he think that he is wanted on this particular even- 

 ing. While he goes plodding along, picking up a little bit here 

 and there, the keeper and his lad are holding some conversation 

 about him. I happen to come across them ; my sympathies are 

 with the badger, but it is not my business to interfere. 



" Have ye got the bag and sack, Jim ? If ye have, jest make 

 yer way, quiet like, over t'other hill, an' cum down the side on 

 it, on the quiet, mind ; fix yer bag, an' when 'tis done, give three 

 hoots, one arter t'other, to let me know as things is all right ; ye 

 minds what I tell ye ; I'm goin' back to git Ginger an' Nipper. 

 They'll hussle him up, an' no mistake. They ain't big uns, but 



better tarriers than what 

 they be never cum inter 

 this 'ere wurld. Now then, 

 off ye goes, an' before ye 

 gits yer job done I shall be 

 near to ye, fur to hear ye 

 hoot : he's sartin sure to be 

 on the ramble." 



Arriving at the spot, Jim 

 produces the bag, or rather 

 a small sack, from his jack- 

 et pocket, and places it in 

 the entrance to the badger's 

 burrow in such a way that 

 should the animal rush for 

 home, as he generally does 

 when alarmed, he will go 

 right into it. The string that runs round the mouth of the sack 

 will be pulled tight by the force of his rush, and there he will be 

 like a pig in a poke. The string of the bag is secured, of course, to 



<tf 



iV.M'N 





V. -: . V " " A-*. =% 



Indian Badger. 



