THE BADGER 



Scarborough and York. In Lincolnshire it 

 is to be found in places; it is extinct in 

 Durham, and practically so in Northumber- 

 land, where within fifty years it was common 

 enough. 



A Northumberland gamekeeper of my 

 father's has told me he knew it in the Kyloe 

 Craggs and the Ho wick Woods, and remem- 

 bered his father taking him to see their dog 

 tried at a badger near Belford. In none of 

 these places are they to be found now. In my 

 own district of Cleveland they were in 1874 all 

 but extinct. I remember as a boy two were 

 caught in our neighbourhood, one in Kildale 

 and one at Ayton ; but in 1874 I had three 

 young badgers sent me from Cornwall, dug 

 out by one of my uncles, and these I turned 

 out in my father's coverts, and secured for 

 them the keeper's protection. Since then 

 they have, with a few later introductions, 

 held their own, and a few years ago I knew 

 of nine badger " sets " in the vicinity, and 

 some five on our own ground ; but I regret 

 that the hands of neighbours are against 



them. 



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