1004 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



loose soil it can dig so fast as to escape into the ground before 

 the foe can come near. It is supposed to be at home nowhere 

 but underground, and I never expected to see one go aloft, so 

 was much surprised one day to see a caged specimen climb 

 readily to the roof of its cage by hooking its claws in the wire 

 netting; and another in the Winnipeg Zoo that easily and often 

 climbed a low branching tree in its enclosure. 



The Badger is a winter-sleeper. A 'seven-sleeper,' the 

 country folk say. It generally appears above ground as soon 

 as the snow is gone. 



In the early days of Manitoba, before the fence and the 

 plough had come, the traveller saw, hourly, on the sunny 

 mornings, a whitish bump on a raised mound of earth not far 

 from the trail. As he approached it, the white bump might 

 develop a sharp and movable point at one end, the point 

 would sway in the wind, then the white thing -disappear into 

 the earth, showing that the bump was simply a Badger taking 

 his morning sun-bath. On the Souris Plains Badgers were 

 thus seen a dozen times a day. 



They rarely go far from their holes, and when they do, 

 they are much alarmed by discovery, and go shuffling about to 

 each promising place in search of a road to the friendly shelter 

 of mother earth. 



I overtook one once on the open plains in Arizona. He 

 skurried about but could find no hole, so faced about, and as 

 he made short leaps towards my companion I caught him by 

 the only safe handle, his rough, strong tail. But possession 

 seemed to satisfy the hunter's instinct, and once we had 

 conquered him we freed him and left him in peace. 



On another occasion, in June, 1897, on the Upper Yellow- 

 stone, I met a Badger waddling over the prairie. I had a 

 camera with me and, meaning to get a picture, ran after him. 

 To my great surprise, he came rushing towards me uttering a 

 loud snarling. Fully believing in my ability to avoid his 

 attack, if indeed he really meant to make one, I continued to 



