220 Badgers. 



now (after waiting awhile, and forgetting that the 

 adjacent hollow might hide the enemy) a dozen or 

 more have come forth within easy gunshot. Though 

 a few like this are always looking in and out all 

 through the day, it is not till the approach of evening 

 that they come out in any number. 



This is a favorite spot from whence to get a shot 

 at them, but the aim must be deadly, or the rabbit 

 will escape though never so severely wounded. The 

 holes are so numerous that he has never more than a 

 yard to scramble, and as he goes down into the earth 

 his own weight carries him on. If he can but live 

 ten seconds after the lead strikes him, he will gen- 

 erally escape you. Watching patiently (without 

 firing), after the twilight has deepened into night, 

 presently you are aware of a longer, larger creature 

 than a rabbit stealing out, seeming to travel close to 

 the earth : it is a badger. There are almost always 

 a couple somewhere about the warren. Their resi- 

 dence is easily discovered because of the huge heap 

 of sand thrown out from the rabbit-hole they have 

 chosen ; and it is this ease of discovery that has 

 caused the diminution of their numbers by shot or 

 spade. 



The ground sounds hollow underneath the foot 

 perhaps half an acre is literally bored away under the 

 surface ; and yon have to thread your way in and out 

 a labyrinth of holes, the earth about some of them 

 perceptibly yielding to your weight. There must be 

 wagon-loads of the sand that has been thrown out. 

 Beyond this central populous quarter suburbs of 

 burrows extend in several directions, and there are 

 detached settlements fifty and a hundred } r ards away. 



