V 



THE BADGER AND HIS KIN 



MANY an animal lives beside us, of which we 

 are told by those genial vagabonds, the hunters, 

 or whose traces constantly present themselves, 

 but of which we rarely catch even a glimpse. 

 These creatures continue to pursue their own 

 secluded manner of living, while men increase 

 around them, and civilization alters their environ- 

 ment, accommodating themselves as well as they 

 can to human interference with their habits and 

 subsistence, and surviving or even profiting by the 

 changes, but keeping aloof from the eyes of men. 



I have been using the word " animals " here in 

 its special popular sense of designating the four- 

 footed, hairy creatures technically termed Mam- 

 mals ; and it is a curious and notable lack in our 

 English speech that we have no vernacular word 

 which exactly stands for this most definite and 

 familiar of zoological groups : " quadruped " won't 

 do, where precision is desirable, since many rep- 

 tiles, as lizards and turtles, have four feet ; and I 

 see no help for it but to popularize the word 

 "mammal," which is not a very "hard" one to 

 learn. 



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