V THE BADGER AND HIS KIN 135 



therefore an uncommon accident, even where the 

 species abounds and its burrows may be seen in 

 all directions ; and the animal disappears rapidly 

 before the advance of any considerable settlement 

 in its territory. Audubon and Bachman imply 

 that its habitat was always limited by the eastern 

 extent of the Great Plains, but the fact is that 

 these animals formerly were spread as far east as 

 the open country extended, dwelling upon all the 

 prairies of southwestern Michigan, northern Ohio, 

 Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin (which has been called 

 the Badger State since its early days), Minnesota, 

 Iowa, and northward. Now they have disappeared 

 from all this area, and are rare in the easterly and 

 more cultivated districts of Kansas, Nebraska, and 

 Dakota, where their range is annually withdrawing 

 westward. Northward they are found as far as 

 the Peace River, and eastward to Hudson Bay; 

 so that the fullest early accounts of them were 

 given in the writings of Pennant, Richardson, and 

 other naturalists who explored the Fur Countries 

 years ago. 



Everywhere the badger is truly a " beast of the 

 fields" an inhabitant of the open country dig- 

 ging or stealing underground holes, and preying 

 upon everything it can catch or conquer. Its body 

 is two feet long, extraordinarily low-hung and broad, 

 so that the creature appears to be, and perhaps is, 

 wider than it is tall ; but this effect is partly due to 

 the fact that the long fur, which parts upon the 



