46 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



distinguishable from the spots of h'ght discernible in 

 the twilight. You may be lucky and watch for an 

 hour the gambols of the little badgers, and learn 

 things about their natural history the pleasures of 

 which are unknown to the ' desk naturalist/ At 

 any rate you will have spent a pleasant evening, 

 never without interest, where the voice of nature and 

 her wild creatures have played their part." 



Sir Alfred Pease, in speaking of the characteristics 

 of the badger, says : ^^ No animal prefers a more 

 quiet life, loving a warm bed in a dry, dark corner 

 of the earth or rocks. He loves to sleep and meditate 

 in peace for the greater part of the twenty-four hours. 

 He lies not far within his entrance hall during the 

 spring and summer, and on a hot day he will some- 

 times come to the mouth of his hole. In the evening 

 in June or July he will come outside, sit looking into 

 the wood or shuffle round the bushes, stretch himself 

 against the tree stems, or have a clumsy romp with 

 his wife and little ones ; and when the daylight dies 

 he will hurry off, rushing through the covert for his 

 nightly ramble. In the summer he will travel as far 

 as six miles from home, but he is in bed again an 

 hour before sunrise." 



Thebadger^s "set "is generally found in dense copses 

 and in soft, easy workable soil, though sometimes he 

 will work out cavernous passages in rocks. The set 

 consists of tortuous passages opening out into roomy 

 chambers. Here several families of badgers may 

 reside amicably together, the males always dwelling 

 apart from their wives in a separate chamber when 

 they are nursing their young ones and thus avoiding 



