HADGER. 127 



Characters. — General colour yellowish-grey, washed with black; 

 under-parts and limbs black ; face white, with a black longitu- 

 dinal streak on each side j-assing through the eye and ear. 

 Length of head and body about 27 inches ; of tail, 7^ inches 



"With regard to the nature and coloration of the pelage, 

 Macgillivray writes as follows : — " On the head and face the 

 hairs are adpressed, and of ordinary texture ; on the lower- 

 parts coarse, but of the nature of fur or under-hair ; on the 

 upper-parts of two kinds, a coarse fur and still coarser and 

 longer, stiffish, undulated, flattened, and pointed hairs. The 

 head, chin, and hind-neck are white, with a broad brownish- 

 black band on each side from before the eye over the ear, of 

 which the tip is white, down the back of the neck. The throat, 

 fore-neck, middle of the breast, fore-limbs, and hind-feet are 

 brownish-black ; the upper-parts and sides light grey, variegated 

 with black, a large portion of each hair near the end being of 

 the latter colour ; the long hairs at the tip of the short tail 

 whitish." It may be added that the long hairs of the body 

 are three-coloured, namely reddish, white, and black, and it is 

 the blending of these that produces the well-known " Badger- 

 colour." The soles of the feet are completely covered with 

 hair. 



Distribution. — Ranging over the greater part of Northern 

 Europe and Asia, the Badger was formerly an abundant animal 

 in the British Isles, where it has left its remains in the 

 Pleistocene deposits of Kent, as well as in many English 

 caverns, and likewise in Shandon Cave, Ireland. Owing to 

 its shy and retiring habits, and the secluded nature of the spots 

 in which it takes up its subterranean haunts, the Badger, or, as 

 it used to be called in many parts of England, the "Brock," is 

 very generally supposed to be an exceedingly rare, if not a 

 nearly exterminated, animal in our islands. This, however, 

 is very far indeed from being the case, and Badgers occur 



