THE RACOON 239 



stance of this habit. A hunter and his family having 

 left their lodge unguarded during their absence, on their 

 return found it completely gutted. The walls were there, 

 but nothing else. Blankets, guns, kettles, axes, cans, 

 knives, and all other paraphernalia of a trapper's tent 

 had vanished, and the tracks left by the beast showed 

 who had been the thief. The family set to work, and by 

 carefully following up all his paths recovered, with some 

 trifling exceptions, the whole of the lost property. The 

 common badger is another of the weasel tribe of consider- 

 able size, being from two and a half to three feet long, and 



FIG. 66. 



THE AMERICAN BADGER. 



standing about one foot high at the shoulder. There 

 are some half-dozen species of true badgers, all peculiar 

 to Europe and Asia, including England and Japan. 



Another kind is the hog-badger, which is found 

 nowhere but in Central and Southern Asia. A small, 

 burrowing kind, called the teledu, is found in the moun- 

 tains of Java, while a form quite different from all 

 these the American badger or braro is widely spread 

 over North America. It is, however, most rarely seen, 

 since it not only burrows, but lives almost as much 

 under ground as does a mole, while in colder latitudes it 

 hibernates during a considerable portion of the year. 

 Dr. Coues says that he has travelled for days and 



