THE BADGER 



which 'Wilfred' found gone, they had merely 

 been shifted by the vixen ; as soon as the 

 cubs get able to travel they are always shifted. 

 Last year I had two tame wild ducks sitting in 

 a hedge. A badger passed regularly within 

 a yard of them every night, but they were 

 undisturbed. This year a fox took one of 

 them just before it hatched. I was sorry to 

 read the other day in the Field an account of 

 two old and four cub badgers having been 

 dug out in Gloucestershire. There is surely 

 no sport in this, and the badgers are destitute 

 of grease now, whereas at Michaelmas they 

 are fat enough to provide grease for all the 

 rheumatic people in the parish. I like to 

 catch one with my terriers when the harvest 

 moon shines. Sometimes I get up in a con- 

 venient tree near the earth and watch the 

 badgers feeding on the crazy roots. How 

 fond they are of the wild bees' honey, and 

 also of wasps' nests. Let me advise 

 ' Wilfred ' to read the exhaustive and inter- 

 esting account given in a letter to the Times 

 (October 24, 1877), and quoted in Cassell's 



Natural History, vol. ii. It thus concludes 



70 



