CHAPTER XXXV. GROUND 

 VERMIN. 



THE BADGER. 



SOME disagreement may arise as to including the badger 

 in the list of ground vermin, but this animal is whether 

 rightly or wrongly generally looked upon as a varmint, and 

 treated as such in all those localities where it still occurs. 

 Personally we have no sympathy with that kind of " sport " 

 where a badger is worried at odd intervals by dogs which 

 their owners may think game enough to draw the animal 

 from its tub, still we are always ready to see a fair set-to 

 between dog and badger at the earth. The malpractice of 

 " baiting" seems unnecessarily prolonged and extremely 

 cruel; often in these encounters the badger receives many 

 bad wounds, and being to employ a popular expression 

 half killed, is then left to recover sufficiently to meet another 

 mongrel or two, these mongrels being of that particular no 

 breed which are " all there " up to the first little touch they 

 receive, but which the slightest bite is sufficient to send off 

 yelping, with their tails tucked tightly between their legs. 

 The badger is a quiet and, to a certain extent, inoffensive 



