998 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



the larger kinds of burrowing rodents are found in numbers. 

 In the dry poplar country, that is varied with open glades, it is 

 occasionally found far from the prairies. MacFarlane records 

 a specimen from Isle a la Crosse, in 1889, and 2 from Green 

 Lake, 1889 and 1890 (Mam. N. W. T., />. 715). (Spots 2 and i 

 on map.) 



While travelling on the Athabaska, in 1907, I was shown 

 by the pilot, John MacDonald, a range of hills where 2 Badgers 

 were killed by Francois Black, one in 1905, the other in 

 1906. 



The exact neighbourhood was Red Willow Lake, 18 miles 

 south-east of Fort MacMurray; the place is spotted (3) on the 

 map. He said that the animal was previously unknown there, 

 but some Plains Indians, who happened to be at the Post, 

 knew these at once and called them ' Mittejiusk.' 



The spot (4) in northern Michigan is on the authority of 

 Charles C. Adams {Ecological Surv., N. Mich., 1906, p. 130). 



MANi- In Manitoba, the Badger is confined to the dry prairie 



regions. It is very rare in the half-timbered country, and un- 

 known in the thick woods to the north-east. 



It seems indeed to be exact complement of the Wood- 

 chuck, which, on account of these facts, is known to the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company people as the Thick-wood Badger. 



ENVIRON- Dry rolling prairies of light or gravelly soil, with a high 



populative rate of Ground-squirrels, are the Badger's ideal 

 surroundings. 



John Atkinson, the Lake Winnipeg guide, writes me that 

 he found a few of these animals in the drier country between 

 Winnipeg and Whitemouth River, also about the gravelly hills 

 east of Gonor. 



On the heavy clay prairies of the Lower Red River, how- 

 ever, it is scarce, and, of course, on swampy lands it is unknown. 



HOME- There is little direct evidence at hand to show the home- 



range of an individual Badger, but obviously it must be very 



