BEARS 47 



the noise and bustle and turmoil of family cares. It 

 is often stated that there is only one entrance to the 

 set, but Mr. Millais speaks of a set with forty-four 

 entrances. In making a new set badgers usually 

 appropriate a rabbit-hole, enlarging and adapting it 

 to their needs and taste. Occasionally foxes and 

 badgers will inhabit the same earth. No doubt 

 cunning Reynard will make use of ^^Brock^s" superior 

 capacity for digging, and good-natured ^^ Brock ^' 

 suffers in consequence, for the badger is a very 

 cleanly housekeeper, frequently changing the litter 

 which forms his bedding in the sleeping chamber, 

 leaving no refuse food about the entrance to his set, 

 and carefully burying his excrement like a cat. The 

 fox is a dirty, untidy housekeeper, and thus landlord 

 and tenant fall out, and Brock, losing his temper, 

 slays his tenant^s cubs, and in this way has got him- 

 self a bad name among fox hunters ; also he is a great 

 fidget and must always be on the move when he is 

 awake, scraping and digging and prying into other 

 people's business ; consequently he cannot resist 

 opening up fox earths that have been stopped. For 

 these two sins the fox hunter pursues poor Brock 

 unmercifully, who has to pay the penalty with his 

 life. The badger walks, as we have said, like a bear, 

 leaving an unmistakable spoor, and feeds like a bear 

 on fruits, nuts, roots, birds' 6ggs, frogs, snakes, slugs, 

 snails and insects. He will also rob the bees' nests 

 of honey, and is especially fond of wasp grubs and 

 indifferent to the stings of the worker wasps. Doubt- 

 less badgers will take pheasants' eggs when they 

 come across them, and they will eat young rabbits, 



