BADGER. 131 



will feed so near that I have placed my hand on the back of 

 one of them. The old ones are more wary, but often feed 

 with their family, although at a more cautious distance. Their 

 hearing and sense are most acute, and it is curious to see them 

 watch, with lifted head and ears erect, then, if all is quiet, 

 search the ground for a raisin or a date. But the least strange 

 sight or sound alarms them, and they rush headlong to earth 

 with amazing speed." As is so generally the case among the 

 Carnivora, the young of the Badger are born blind, and remain 

 so for several days after birth. It is generally stated, in the 

 case of the Badger, that the young open their eyes on the 

 ninth day ; but Dr. A. Nehring records an instance w^here a 

 litter, born in the Zoological Gardens at Berlin, did not do so 

 until the eighteenth day after birth. 



A remarkable peculiarity in regard to the Badger is the 

 length and variability of the period of gestation. The mini- 

 mum duration of pregnancy does not appear to be fully ascer- 

 tained, although Dr. Nehring is of opinion that it cannot be 

 less than six months. Instances are on record where female 

 Badgers that have been kept in solitary confinement have 

 brought forth young after periods of ten and twelve months ; 

 and one very important one is recorded by Captain F. H. 

 Salvin, in which a Badger gave birth to one litter on Febriary 

 27th, and to another on the sixteenth of the same month in 

 the following year, showing that in this case the period of ges- 

 tation was about seventeen days short of a twelvemonth. In 

 other instances, however, the period is much longer, reaching 

 in two of these to at least fifteen months. The probable ex- 

 planation of these discrepancies is that in certain cases, as in 

 the Roe-deer, the impregnated ovum undergoes a period of 

 quiescence before development j such retardation of develop 

 ment being not improbably induced by captivity, which nearly 

 always interferes more or less with the reproductive process of 

 animals. 



K 7 



4 



