50 COMMON BIUTISB ANIMALS 



having turned a somersault over the offending thing 

 and thus sprung the trap. 



Badger baiting, a most cruel and cowardly amuse- 

 ment, common in the eighteenth century, is now 

 happily illegal. 



Many country people believe the badger to be 

 invulnerable except to a blow on the nose, because 

 of the difficulty both of trapping and shooting him. 

 His skin being so very thick and his hair so stiff, 

 the shot does not penetrate. Another curious belief 

 about the badger is that he is lop-sided, his legs on 

 one side being longer than those on the other. This 

 was supposed to enable him the more easily to run 

 along a hillside. In the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries it was a common practice in the south of 

 England with the churchwardens to pay, from the 

 church rate, for the destruction of vermin. In 

 churchwardens^ accounts of the parish of Warehorne, 

 near Ashford, in Kent, from 1705—40 the following 

 payments frequently occur : " Is. each for martens, 

 foxes, greys (badgers), polecats, 2d. each for hedge- 

 hogs.^^ 



Stoat (or Ermine), and Weasel. 



Closely allied to the badger, though much smaller 

 in size, are the stoat and weasel and their less well- 

 known connections, the marten and polecat, of which 

 last the ferret is but a domesticated variety. 



The male stoat is lOf inches long taking head and 

 body together, and the tail is 6^ inches long; the 

 female is much smaller. Though the stoat's legs 



