THE GARNI VORA. 59 



The strong scent of the badger is secreted in a large 

 glandular pouch beneath the tail. 



For so heavily built an animal, it is singularly swift of 

 foot, though it has not, as some aver, legs of unequal 

 length to enable it to run uphill. When escape from the 

 dogs is out of the question, its strongly articulated lower 



iaw and sharp teeth encourage it to stand 



Gentle j e -^ ,r 



disposition at ^ av an( * S lve a verv g oo & account of itself. 



It is nevertheless extremely gentle by nature, 



and is, when taken young, capable of great affection for 



the hand that feeds it. A friend and myself kept one for 



nearly a year, which preferred young rats to any other 



food. At the end of that time it died, and I remember 



we thought at the time that its decease was due to the 



absence from its diet of some necessary corrective root of 



which we unfortunately did not know the secret. The 



badger is as a rule a silent beast, but it will occasionally 



utter piercing cries without apparent cause. 



The distribution of the badger in these islands is some- 

 what local. As already remarked, its burrowing and 

 nocturnal habits have caused it to be regarded as rarer 

 than it really is. In the Lake district, however, it cer- 

 tainly does appear to have diminished of late 

 Present range. J f f 



years, though correspondingly extending its 



range in other directions. According to Roebuck, 1 it is also 

 dwindling in Yorkshire. By no means rare in the High- 

 lands, where it hibernates, it is apparently unknown on most 

 of the islands, though introduced into Jura. 2 It is com- 

 mon in parts of Ireland, where the peasantry cure its flesh. 

 It breeds in the spring, four young being born in March 

 Breeding, or April as a rule, though litters are recorded 

 hiberna- in the summer. The period of gestation is 

 tion, and said to vary. Its hibernation is no more 

 appearance. than ft ^^^ gleepj fo^ although it stores 

 a quantity of moss and grass in its so .-called winter 



1 Yorkshire Vertebrata, p. 7. 



2 Harvie-Browu and Buckley, Fauna of Argyll, p. 18. 



