| 1900-1901. ] Badgers. 147 
hands, and the language used, as is generally the case in such 
low species of gambling, was more expulsive than refined. 
An amusing story used to be told of a young miner in the 
Scremerston district, near Berwick, who had a well - bred 
young dog which he purposed training to “draw the badger.” 
The story is of some antiquity, and perhaps not altogether to 
be depended on. When the dog was about eight months old, 
the lad induced his father to put a badger -skin over his 
head and shoulders, and crawl into the room on his hands and 
knees to see how the dog would act. SBeing well-bred, it 
rushed at its supposed natural enemy and fastened on the 
nose of the old gentleman, who shrieked out at the pitch of 
his voice. Without attempting to render assistance, the 
“young scamp cried out, “ Bide it, man, faither, bide it, man; 
“it'll be the makin’ o’ the pup.” 
The manner in which badgers were persecuted has added a 
word to the English language, the term “badgered” being 
very expressive. “Drawing the badger” is also a favourite 
phrase applied to asking questions with the view of eliciting 
information when the person questioned is not disposed to be 
- communicative. 
j There is a simile in Burns’s poems I cannot agree with, and 
which to my mind constitutes one case where this acute 
observer of nature had not studied the animal in question for 
himself, but quotes from the well-known Scotch proverb. 
When referring to the gentry in his “Twa Dogs,” he 
- says :— 
: “They gang as saucy by puir folk 
|e As I wad by a stinkin’ brock.” 
Now, badgers are the cleanliest animals in the world. Like 
the model housewife, they have their spring and autumn 
cleaning, clearing out their beds and replacing them with 
fresh material. This they generally do early in February, 
in anticipation of the wants of the nursery. Badgers in 
their normal state have not an offensive smell, and in order 
to have this corroborated I would suggest that on one of 
their excursions next summer the members of the Edinburgh 
_ Naturalists’ Society should go to Rutherford and see the 
beautiful and interesting creatures to be presently mentioned 
Vee 
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