CHAP. THIRTY-ONE THE BADGER 



any animal that would be inclined to molest him, and can 

 generally keep at bay any dog small enough to enter his 

 hole. Fighting at advantage from behind some stone or 

 root, he gives the most fearful bites and scratches, while 

 the dog has nothing within his reach to attack save the 

 badger's formidable array of teeth and claws. 



Though nearly extinct as one of the ferce nature?- of 

 England, the extensive woods and tracts of rocks in the 

 north of Scotland will, I hope, prevent the badger's becom- 

 ing like the beaver and other animals, wholly a creature of 

 history,andexistingonly in record.* Much should I regret 

 that this respectable representative of so ancient a family, 

 the comrade of mammoths and other wonders of the ante- 

 diluvian world, should become quite extirpated. Living, 

 too, in remote and uncultivated districts, he very seldom 

 commits any depredations deserving of death or perse- 

 cution, but subsists on the wild succulent grasses androots, 

 and the snails and reptiles which he finds in the forest 

 glades, or, on rare occasions, makes capture of youno- 

 game or wounded rabbits or hares, but I do not believe 

 that he does or can hunt down any game that would not 

 otherwise fall a prey to crow or weasel, or which has the 

 full use of its limbs. It is only wounded and injured animals 

 that he can catch. 



*There is no prospect of badgers becoming extinct in Engl.md. They still abound in 

 Surrey and several of the southern counties, leading a peaceful existence so near the 

 heart of London as Lord Mansfield's park at Caen Wood, on the side of Hampstead 

 Heath; but iu Scotland they have become exceedingly rare, except in some of the Hif-h- 

 land deer forests. The late Sir John Ramsden exerted himself to preserve them at Ard- 

 verikie, and his example has been followed by some other proprietors; but the occa- 

 sional raids made by badgers upon pheasant coops brings them under the ban of the 

 game-preserver. — Ed. 



399 



