3 o8 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



tender care of the otter-hunt, should such pack of hounds 

 exist in his locality. 



THE BADGER, Meles taxus. Although not nearly so 

 valuable an animal of the chase as are fox and otter, 

 the badger may be tolerated for several reasons. In the 

 first place, badgers are not sufficiently numerous generally 

 to give the gamekeeper much cause for anxiety on 

 account of the harm they may do. The badger lives 

 in deep burrows in the innermost recesses of the woods, 

 and although known on occasion to take the eggs or 

 the young of game, it relies in great measure upon 

 vegetable substances for its subsistence. Brock is an 

 old-time country name for the badger ; and in some 

 districts it is known as " grey," and in others as " baw- 

 sened-pate " the term bawsened, i. e. striped with white, 

 bearing reference to the distinctive patches of white on 

 the animal's head. 



THE BEECH MARTEN, Martes foina, goes also by 

 the name Stone Marten. This marten was at one 

 time commonly met with in the southern parts of the 

 island, but half a century's out-rooting of most forms 

 of animal life at all injurious to game has caused this 

 interesting but highly-destructive creature to be well- 

 nigh if not wholly exterminated. The beech marten 

 preys upon small animals, as also upon birds, their eggs 

 and young. It is a rather formidable creature, being 

 about 30 in. long, and is most agile, and extremely 

 difficult to capture except by strategy. It may be 

 distinguished from the one other British marten by its 

 white throat, and on this account it is sometimes styled 

 White-throated Marten. 



THE PINE MARTEN, Martes abietum, is still found in 

 the pine-clad and hilly districts in North-west England, 



