120 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



fox, fast asleep, curled up on a ledge scarce 5 feet 

 below. Foxes are, of course, abundant enough all over 

 the Cheviots, and in spring", almost every crag or series 

 of tumbled rocks holds a brood. 



The pine-marten has utterly disappeared from 

 the Cheviots ; l but badgers still hold their own at 

 many points. There was a badger's earth in the rocks 

 below Ilderton Dod, on Cheviot, that we watched one 

 spring with great interest. In habits, these animals are 

 scrupulously cleanly. A fox's earth, as everyone knows, 

 has an overpowering, sickening smell, while that of a 

 badger is clean and sweet. The latter possesses, more- 

 over, some rudimentary sense of comfort — which a 

 fox lacks — for the badger provides himself with a nice 

 dry bed of dead grass and fern, and on sunny days 

 brings it out to air! There is danger, however, in 

 this practice, for the mass of broken litter about the 

 mouth of the den is apt to betray its whereabouts. 



Though built and designed by nature for digging up 

 roots and a vegetable diet, yet badgers do destroy a 

 certain number of rabbits — (of which there are always 

 enough and to spare) — and in spring they exhibit a 

 marvellous skill in "spotting" from above, nests contain- 

 ing young rabbits. These they do not attack from 

 the mouth of the burrow, which would seem the easiest 

 plan; but dig down vertically upon them — "crowning," 

 the keepers call this performance. Badgers are also fond 

 of wild-honey; and in Garret Hott wood, a couple of 

 miles from here, Mr Thomas Robson of Bridgeford tells 



1 Though the pine-marten is extinct in Northumberland, a few still 

 survive in Westmorland and Cumberland ; whence stragglers may occasion- 

 ally find their way along the crags and rugged moors that mark the line 

 of the Roman wall. 



