CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 269 



and now and then a snake or frog, a nest of 

 ground-building birds, or even a settler's young 

 chickens when they wandered too far afield ; but 

 he rarely if ever raids a poultry-yard. These, 

 however, are incidents of his carnivorous pur- 

 suits, which are mainly nocturnal. The bulk of 

 his food is found in the small and always mis- 

 chievous rodents. As Osgood says: 



"Almost the whole life of the badger is spent in 

 digging out the various rodents that constitute its 

 food. It requires two or three fat ground squirrels 

 a day, or a few gophers and a dozen mice, to keep a 

 badger in good condition. ... In case of pocket- 

 gophers the badger digs down in several places along 

 the line of the burrow and sometimes succeeds in 

 cornering and capturing the occupant. Mice are 

 easily unearthed, and a nest of young mice is a special 

 delicacy. . . . When in pursuit of a gopher, a 

 badger may dig into and endanger ditch-banks, but 

 in most cases the gopher, if left alone, would do far 

 more mischief. 



' ' Practically the only enemy of the badger is man, 

 and it seems incomprehensible that men of intelli- 

 gence should wantonly destroy on every possible oc- 

 casion the most useful and least harmful of all our 

 native mammals. So generally, however, are badgers 

 killed that after a valley has been settled for some 

 time they become extremely scarce, and are really in 

 danger of local extermination. As a result one of 



