A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



who examined the specimen, a weasel, pure white 

 even to the extremity of the tail, was captured near 

 Leicester. Bell, in his British Quadrupeds, remarks on 

 the rarity of such variation in the weasel ; and Harley 

 states that the white specimen above noticed is the 

 only one of the kind he ever met with. It might be 

 supposed that Harley had possibly mistaken a small 

 stoat for a weasel, but he adds that 'the stoat its 

 congener becomes white in the dreary season of the 

 winter, throughout, save the tip of its tail, the hair of 

 which generally remains black. The change of dress 

 and the variegated exterior of the weasel is certainly 

 of less common occurrence, if not very rare.' I pur- 

 chased from Ludlam, a bird-stuffer, a purely white 

 specimen, said by him to have been killed at Tooley 

 Park, Earl Shilton, in August, 1870, by a Mr. Jacques. 

 I cannot, however, get confirmation of this, so give 

 the note for what it is worth. One a male was 

 killed by a dog at a rick at Aylestone Mill on z Octo- 

 ber, 1885, and was purchased for the museum on 

 account of a slight variation, the upper surface of the 

 left paw being white. Mr. W. Whitaker, of Wistow, 

 informed me, in January, 1886, of a light yellow 

 variety killed by a cat at Market Bosworth, and in the 

 hands of the bird-stuffer there, to whom I wrote for 

 details, only, unfortunately, to find that he had died. 



Pinchen received a white one on 14 December, 

 1889, procured, he believes, at Cropston. Mr. Horn 

 wrote to me that on 22 May, 1905, he saw a weasel 

 carrying something in its mouth ; and upon chase being 

 given, it promptly went to ground in a mole-run, 

 dropping its burden, which proved to be one of its 

 young, naked and blind. 

 1 7. Badger. Mela meles, Linn. 

 Bell Meles taxus. 

 Locally Brock. 



Resident and generally distributed ; apparently 

 more common than formerly, for writing of this 

 animal (1840-50) Harley appears to have found it 

 rare. He wrote : ' Formerly well distributed over 

 the county, abounding in most large woods, especially 

 those verging on the forest of Charnwood. The 

 woods of Gopsdl and Oakley also bore marks of its 

 retreat, even till a very recent date. Used also to 

 occur at Mere Hill Wood, near Loughborough. Not 

 common.' His opinion as to its scarcity is shared up 

 to the present by most observers, but probably the 

 animal is more common than generally supposed, 

 owing to its retiring, nocturnal habits. The Leicester 

 Museum possessed two specimens marked ' Leicester- 

 shire,' presumably those recorded in the donation- 

 book, one as having been presented by Sir A. S. 

 Hazlerigg, bart., on 22 August, 1849, and the other 

 shot at Keythorpe Hall, and presented by Lord Berners 

 on 2 April, 1 860. The Rev. Andrew Matthews, M.A., 

 rector of Gumley, forwarded a half-grown living speci- 

 men a male to the Leicester Museum on 28 June, 

 1884. It was taken alive by a farm servant in the parish, 

 who found it asleep, and cleverly contrived to get its neck 

 between the prongs of a fork, pinning it to the ground 

 whilst he tied its legs together, when he carried it 

 home in triumph.' Mr. H. S. Davenport wrote in 

 1885 : 'Badgers are bred in Owston Wood ; Ram's 

 Head at Keythorpe ; and Sir F. Fowke's spinneys at 

 Tilton-on-the-Hill, most years.' The late Mr. R. 

 Widdowson wrote in 1885 : 'A great many instances 

 Zool. (1884), p. 271. 



of badgers being killed within a few miles of us within 

 the last year or two : have had two from Hoby. A 

 friend residing at Eaton, near Waltham-on-the- Wolds, 

 had about four months ago three within a week ; two 

 were young.' Mr. W. Ingram, writ ng in 1885, 

 says : ' Badgers breed in our woods, but are rarely 

 found away from their earths. I have known of but 

 two instances of badgers being found above ground 

 by the foxhounds and killed. Keepers tell me that 

 they occasionally see a family of badgers returning to 

 their lair, trotting in a line behind a leader just before 

 daybreak!' Mr. John Hunt informed me, in 1885, that 

 badgers formerly bred or were found at Scraptoft, and 

 Mr. J. A. Gill afterwards corroborated this by telling 

 me that twenty or more years ago they bred in the 

 ' Hall Gardens,' Scraptoft, and he remembered two 

 being caught one moonlight night by men posted in 

 yew-trees over their burrows. The badgers having 

 been watched out, their holes were 'bagged,' the 

 animals being afterwards driven out of the adjacent 

 spinneys into these traps. Col. F. Palmer told me that 

 there was generally one laid up in Owston Wood, or 

 in the plantation near Launde, and a young one, dug 

 out about 1886, is now mounted and in his posses- 

 sion. A male badger was presented to the Leicester 

 Museum on 1 8 June, 1886, by Mr. C. E. Bassett, of 

 Ullesthorpe, who gave the following details : ' The 

 badger was captured in a dry brick culvert on Whit- 

 Thursday ; it had been lying in a sand-pit for some 

 time, and finding it had moved, we tried to draw it 

 with terriers, but although they faced it well, it 

 repeatedly drove them out. It was shot at last whilst 

 passing by a hole in the top. The female and, I 

 believe, young ones are still about.' 



Mr. Geoffrey Ellis recorded one taken at 'The 

 Brand,' near Leicester, at the end of March, 1887. 



The Leicester Journal, dated 22 April, 1887, men- 

 tions the capture of a badger at Marston. Jelley, 

 bailiff to the Rev. F. Buttanshaw, informed me that a 

 large male was killed at Gumley, on I 5 September, 

 1887. Mr. H. L. Powys-Keck, of Stoughton Grange, 

 informed me in 1888 that badgers had been caught 

 twice in Swadborough Spinney, on his estate, but not 

 of late years. The late Dr. Macaulay told me that he 

 was sure they bred or were found at the Laughton 

 Hills, and his assertions were afterwards proved correct 

 by Johnson, the keeper, sending me on 30 August, 

 1885, a very fine female, which I purchased for the 

 museum. Soon after this I saw, in the sale-rooms of 

 Messrs. Warner, Sheppard and Wade, a stuffed badger 

 in a case, on the back of which was inscribed : ' This 

 Badger caught at Laughton, 1849, Jno. Moxon.' 

 Since then I have purchased for the museum a male 

 badger, which was killed in Mr. J. Perkins' plantation 

 at Laughton Hills, 9 May, 1887 ; and three female 

 specimens, also killed at Laughton, on 27 and 28 May, 

 1887, and 23 May, 1888, respectively, the first of these 

 being much younger than the others. One was shot at 

 Illston, near Burton Overy, in 1889, and was preserved, 

 and in the possession of a Mr. Bowles of Oadby in 1889. 

 It was reported in the Daily Mercury of 8 February, 

 1892, that Mr. Mammatt, of Prior Park, Ashby, had 

 killed a fine young badger in Staunton Park, which 

 had been sent to a taxidermist to be stuffed and 

 mounted. On being written to, Mr. Mammatt re- 

 plied that he saw the badger, which was a female, 

 drawn on 3 February, but that he did not kill it 

 himself. In the Leicester Chronicle and Mercury of 



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