Flesh-Eating Land Mammals 



history of the Badger. One could overlook this 

 peculiarity were it an insect, a bird, or even a small 

 species of rodent ; but when it is remembered that the 

 Badger measures 2^ feet in length, and boasts of a tail 

 of almost a quarter as long again, it seems surpassing 

 strange that it should be found in, say, a rabbit-trap 

 set by a gamekeeper, who may not have any previous 

 knowledge of the animal's presence in his preserves. 

 Added to this, the Badger cannot be said to erase, in 

 the slightest degree, indications of its being a dweller 

 in the locality where found. A Badger's "earth," as 

 its deep burrow is termed, is usually marked by an 

 enormous amount of soil and debris around its en- 

 trance, and this alone is a sure and certain sign of 

 the animal having settled in the district. 



There are, no doubt. Badgers in many of our 

 larger woods and forests, whose presence is well known 

 to proprietors of such domains, but it is not of these 

 I speak. I refer more particularly to the animal's 

 appearance in isolated instances, where it had been 

 previously unknown. For example, I knew a taxi- 

 dermist of almost forty years' experience, who had in 

 his generation " set up " practically the whole of the 

 fauna of his county, and yet that artist never was asked 

 to stuff a local Badger except in one solitary instance. 

 This single specimen turned up quite unexpectedly in 

 the well-wooded policies of a neighbouring landowner, 

 and was found by a labourer who chanced to be 

 passing through the woods one morning. This was 



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