144 BRITISH MAMMALS 



foot as far as the heel. The badger only stands about a foot 

 high at the shoulder. The body is much flattened, and the back 

 is very round and broad. Mr. Aubyn Trevor-Battye points 

 out that the badger is able to walk and trot backwards with the 

 greatest ease. It very often moves along with a dancing motion, 

 something like that of its ally, the Indian ratel. 



The colour of the badger is whitish-gray on the nose, white 

 on the muzzle and upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, forehead, nape 

 of the neck, middle of the neck, and shoulders ; also the long 

 hairs of the flanks and belly are white. A black mark starts 

 from just behind the muzzle, above the edge of the upper lip, 

 passes across the cheeks and behind the eyes to the base of the 

 ears, and is continued behind the ears on to the shoulder. The 

 rim of the ear (which is broad and rather long) is white, the inside 

 of the ear being blackish. Underneath the chin, on the throat 

 and chest, the colour is black. The lower part of the arms, the 

 fore feet, and the hind feet are also black. The naked nose is a 

 purplish plum-colour. The short, scrubby, bushy tail is white all 

 over the brush, but the hairs round the base of the tail are 

 golden-yellow. The hair on the belly is yellowish-white. A 

 touch of lemon-yellow also marks the white hair ridges on the 

 cheeks. This lemon-yellow is replaced by a reddish tint on the 

 edges of the stiff white hair that marks the sides of the neck. 

 The naked skin of the tips of the fingers and toes is pinkish, and 

 the long claws are pinkish-brown. The whole of the back, from 

 the nape of the neck to the base of the tail, and also the sides, are 

 covered with long coarse hair, which in general is gray, but is 

 a blackish or grayish-brown on the back and pale brown on the 

 sides. The lower ends of these long hairs are often blackish, and 

 when they lie smoothly on the body they seem to mark it with 

 black bands. Old badgers sometimes become quite a light 

 silvery-gray on this part of the body. The claws of the front 

 paws are long and rather horizontal, not much curved. The 

 claws of the smaller hind feet stick out horizontally, and are much 

 worn down. 



The skin of the badger is singularly loose for the size of the 



