1900-1901. | Badgers. 145 
them out of my head. On nearing the kennels the dogs 
began to bark, and I soon discovered that the keepers were 
' home. Why, I wondered, had they gone home without me ? 
| Little did I then think it was an organised plot. 
Scenting the badger, the entire kennel—from the loud bark 
of retrievers, pointers, and setters, to the yelping of the 
terriers—kept up an excited pandemonium. The bell rang 
again and again in vain, no attention being paid to it. Why 
| a bell should be rung to make dogs quiet may not generally 
be understood. A bell is fixed in the kennel with the pull at 
the keeper’s bedside. When the dogs bark during the day 
‘this bell is rung, and the keeper then goes out with a whip 
and lashes them into their bed. Learning to associate the 
bell with the whip, they generally become quiet with the first 
ring, but on this occasion it had no effect. Bassett had 
therefore no alternative but to get up, and on coming out, 
_eried, “ Who is there?” Amid the noise I shouted “It’s me, 
and I’ve got a badger.” With his assistance I had it secured 
‘in a box, and went home to bed. As the news spread on the 
following day I was regarded as a hero, but the awful agony 
I suffered from fear was carefully suppressed, and I do not 
| think has ever been divulged till now. 
From the fact of the badger being nocturnal in its habits, 
few people ever see one, even in districts where they are 
‘plentiful. We have yet a great deal to learn regarding the 
habits of this quaint night-pig, and much nonsense has been 
written on the subject. Although it generally adheres to the 
district near its burrows, I have known one caught and 
| worried by foxhounds several miles from an “earth.” Only a 
| few weeks ago one was caught and worried by the Jedforest 
| hounds. It was a male, and weighed 32 lb. When driving 
| the woods in Lauderdale last week, one of the guns shot 
| a badger which broke cover. It was also a male, and 
weighed 30 lb. I have also trapped badgers far from their 
haunts. Notwithstanding their short legs, they run at a 
remarkable pace. I have several times in my younger days 
come upon them, giving chase, and found I could keep up 
with them for a couple of hundred yards, but though I was 
always “speedy,” in every case they soon distanced me in the 
Trace, 
— 
Sie 
