44 T. V. EOBEETS — TEERESTEIAL 



I watched them for a long time and have little doubt the animals 

 belonged to this species, but an objectionable wooden fence pre- 

 vented my getting near enough to be certain. Of the water-shrews 

 at South Kensington several are labelled as having come from 

 Tring. 



The order of the Carnivora, or flesh-eating animals, comprises the 

 badger, otter, weasel, stoat, polecat, marten, wild cat, and fox. 



I will begin with the Badger {Meles taxus). One from Cassio- 

 bury has been kindly lent to me by Mr. Capell. It was shot at 

 Long Spring in 1878, and the occurrence was noted at the time by 

 Dr. Brett in the Society's proceedings. Since the extinction of the 

 bear, the badger has been our sole representative of the ursine or 

 bear family. The length of the badger (including the tail) is about 

 three feet, the colour grey, varying in tints in different parts, 

 the head elongated, the legs formed for burrowing and immensely 

 powerful. It is one of our most ancient inhabitants, fossil remains 

 proving his race to have been co-existent with that of the mam- 

 moths and rhinoceroses, which once wandered over our Islands. 

 Much misapprehension, it seems to me, exists in reference to the 

 badger. Mr. St. John, in his ' Wild Sports of the Highlands ' 

 (published nearly 40 years ago), writes of him as an inhabitant of 

 our wilder districts, likely to be soon extirpated, and as being 

 nearly extinct as one of the ferce naturce of England. The author 

 of Murray's 'Handbook for Hampshire' (I quote from the 1858 

 edition) vsrites of him as rapidly disappearing from the New 

 Porest, and soon to become as completely extinct there as in other 

 parts of England ; and Professor Bell, in his ' British Quadrupeds,' 

 mentions comparatively few places (mainly in Oxfordshire and 

 Gloucestershire) as haunts of the animal. Now I have always 

 been in the habit of making enquiries as to the wild animals to be 

 found in any district I chanced to be visiting, and the conclusion I 

 have come to, which is fortified by the opinion of my friends Mr. 

 Schreiber and Mr. Cowley, who are authorities on the subject, 

 is that there are not many localities at all suited to their habits 

 where they are not to be found. It would be tedious to enumerate 

 the places where badgers are known to exist. Mr. Schreiber has 

 furnished me with a long list of counties and places where to his 

 knowledge they are to be met with in greater or less numbers. In 

 the proceedings of the Society for 1877 Dr. Brett enumerates 

 localities where they have been found in Hertfordshire. In 1883 

 he records the capture of one at Odsey, and in 1886 he gives 

 particulars of their occurrence in this immediate neighbourhood. 

 They appear to be not uncommon in the county. I think that 

 the chance of badgers becoming extinct is very remote, even in 

 cultivated and populous districts. They have much in their favour. 

 Their "holts" are often in old chalk -pits, in thick woods, in steep 

 banks, and in similar places where it would be next to impossible 

 to dig them out. They are comparatively harmless, and some 

 persons nowadays are rather pleased to have them on their estates, 

 and give them protection. I have no doubt Professor Bell is right 



