BADGEB. 



277 



feed during the night, many of the mollusca, and 

 other small animals which have that habit. It is thus 

 very probable that badgers are of service as scaven- 

 gers in those places which lie near their burrows, by 

 destroying animals which, but for them would, in 

 the natural state of those rude places, become noxious 

 from their numbers, and destructive from their havoc 

 upon vegetation. In some parts of the country, the 

 badgers have been most unfairly accused of invading 

 the mansions of the dead for the purpose of gratifying 

 their appetite. Their facility in burrowing, and their 

 offensive odour, may both contribute to strengthen 

 such a prejudice on the part of the ignorant. But it 

 is, nevertheless, totally without foundation. Badgers 

 burrow, not for the purpose of eating, but that they 

 may have warm and safe berths, which they render 

 comfortable by bedding them with soft grass ; and 

 they would not eat the contents of graves, even if 

 offered to them without any trouble on their part. 

 The writer of this article remembers, when a boy, 

 being present at the extirpation of a small colony of 

 badgers which stood accused, by current report, of 

 this species of profanation. The surface of an 

 upland, but rather rich district, was finely diversified 

 by swelling knolls along the north bank of a winding 

 rivulet ; and as the rivulet had, according to the 

 custom of rivulets, " taken from the height and given 

 to the hollow," there were steep and tangled banks 

 at different places, open to the south-west, which was 

 the descent side of the country ; and snug and warm, 

 and as well adapted for both birds and badgers, as 

 thickets of fragrant broom upon sloping banks could 

 be. The name of the badgers operated in some sort 

 as a protection to the birds, as the boys seemed afraid 

 to venture far into the brake in their nesting excur- 

 sions, lest they should slip a leg into a badger's 

 hole, and be drawn out minus a toe or even a foot. 

 So linnets, and black-caps, and white-throats, reared 

 their broods, and sung " round," and in high glee, 

 protected by the mighty name of the badger. 



One of these tangled banks was immediately below 

 an ancient place of sepulture, where, previous to the 

 Reformation, there had been a little chapel. This 

 place was still the burial ground for the barony, and 

 it was a place not altogether free from the suspicion 

 of things unearthly. There was a large equisitum 

 tufted pool, between the knoll of which the cemetery 

 occupied the summit and the higher grounds above ; 

 and ignes fatui sometimes snorted .on its margins 

 under the suspicious name of " elfin candles." Be- 

 sides, immediately under the south-west angle of the 

 little enclosure, there flowed a fountain of pure and 

 sparkling water, so abundant that it would have suf- 

 ficed permanently to turn a mill. This fountain 

 abated not a jot of its quantity, and altered not a 

 degree of its temperature, summer or winter, wet or 

 dry ; and while all around was coated with snow to 

 the depth of two or three feet, this fountain not only 

 remained " clear in the eye," but the stream from it 

 flowed smoking along an open channel, which was 



Kroof alike against the powdering snow and the curd- 

 ng frost. The springs of these things, fountain and all, 

 lay deeper than the rustic philosophy, and thus, as the 

 general custom is, they were sent to the limbo of 

 superstition, and all whom immediately thereabout 

 dwelt, along with them. The sod upon some graves, 

 one summer, sunk deeper than had ever been known 

 to proceed from the mere insatiate yawning of that 

 " daughter of the horseleech" for the relatives of the 



occupant ; and the suspicion of foul play foul play 

 to the brim of horror's deep chalice fell upon the 

 badgers. The " landwehr" were summoned ; and 

 they came, girt with fierceness or with fear, and armed 

 with spades, mattocks, and pitchforks, to take by sap 

 and mine the stronghold of the grey-pates, and let 

 the light of heaven shine upon the den of their secret 

 abominations. One party plied the work with mat- 

 tock and spade, while another stood with their arms 

 prepared in case the besieged should make a hostile 

 sortie, or attempt escape ; and to guard against the 

 latter some dozen of curs had been brought as 

 auxiliaries. At length they came to a little chamber, 

 in which there was a small quantity of withered grass, 

 but not a single vestige of bone or other animal 

 remains. Again they worked away ; and soon the male 

 badger made his appearance and his escape, the 

 opening ranks on either side greatly contributing to 

 speed the latter, and one man declaring with " ecce 

 signum" display, that the monster had " dinted a 

 steel spade with only a passing snap." Two or 

 three grievous whines from the curs, gave proof that 

 the badger could " dint" something else ; and soon 

 a most triumphant flourish of yelping announced that 

 he was fairly in the next cover and the danger over. 

 It was now resolved to change the mode of attack, 

 and proceed by fire and smoke. When these were 

 continued till it was judged that all within must be 

 either roasted or suffocated, they began to dig anew, 

 and after passing another chamber which contained 

 only grass as before, they came to a third containing 

 the bodies of a suffocated female and three cubs, the 

 latter very small in size, and two of them clinging to 

 the teats of their mother. These bodies were not 

 treated with that decorum which became a generous 

 foe in the hour of victory. It was found that the 

 excavation reached no farther than the entrance, and 

 the three chambers, so that the badgers could have 

 had no subterraneous communication with the graves, 

 which rendered the sunken appearance more a matter 

 of alarm than ever. Throughout the whole burrow 

 there was not the smallest vestige of any animal 

 remains, nothing but " beddings" of grass, rather more 

 abundant in the chamber where the family was, than 

 in any of the others. The result of the search did 

 not, however, remove all stigma from the character 

 of the badgers. The story is mentioned as one 

 instance of the means by which the characters of 

 animals come to be misrepresented. They have one 

 or two traits -of appearance or habit which do not 

 suit the popular taste, and by means of loose analo- 

 gies, often drawn from subjects of a totally different 

 character, others are added, till the truth is com- 

 pletely buried under a mass of exaggeration. The 

 cause, a very general one, though not so often men- 

 tioned as to put people on their guard against it, is this : 

 A has several qualities in common with B, C takes 

 up some of the qualities of B which are not common 

 to B and A, and drops some of those that are. The 

 series proceeds in the same way, with a marked 

 likeness between every consecutive pair, till all the 

 qualities of A are left out ; but still, taking advan- 

 tage of the whole succession, and giving the last all 

 qualities of the first. 



The common badger is pretty generally, though in 

 no place very abundantly, distributed over all the 

 colder parts of the temperate portion of Europe, and 

 some of Asia. Much cold and much heat appear to 

 be equally unsuited to its habits. The first, it seem* 



