THE BADGER 



defend the general character of a fox in 

 regard to game. Still it may be taken that 

 a badger, though occasionally eating rabbits 

 and rarely eggs, does not hunt for game, 

 ground or feathered, or do a hundredth part 

 of the damage done by a fox or a cat. There 

 have always been more rabbits, hares, and 

 pheasants in a hollow near my house, where 

 there is a large colony of badgers, than in 

 any other part of the coverts. The badger 

 has a special weakness for wild honey, and 

 the grubs of wasps and humble bees. The 

 wildest and most unconciliatory badgers I 

 have ever had in confinement would come 

 out and eat a wasp's nest, and they will hunt 

 every bank and hedgerow in July and August, 

 routing out every wasp's and hornet's nest in 

 the country-side. A keeper told me that 

 upon one occasion, when he was walking 

 along the covert edges in summer-time about 

 nine o'clock in the evening, his attention was 

 arrested by a curious chapping, champing 

 noise, and looking over the fence he saw an 

 old badger with his head in a huge wasp's 

 nest hanging in a bramble bush, and he was 

 6 4 



