CHAPTER IX 



OF THE GREY (BADGER) AND OF HIS NATURE 



The grey (badger) is a common beast enough 

 and therefore I need not tell you of his making, 

 for there be few men that have not seen some of 

 them, and also I shall take no heed to speak much 

 of him, for it is not a beast that needeth any 

 great mastery to devise of how to hunt him, or 

 to hunt him with strength, for a grey can fly but 

 a little way before he is overcome with hounds, 

 or else he goes to bay and then he is slain anon. 

 His usual dwelling is in the earth in great burrows 

 and if he comes out he will not walk far thence. 

 He liveth on all vermin and carrion and all fruits 

 and on all things such as the fox. But he dare 

 not venture so far by day as the fox, for he cannot 

 flee. He liveth more by sleeping than by any 

 other thing. Once in the year they farrow as the 

 fox.^ When they be hunted they defend them- 

 selves long and mightily and have evil biting and 

 venomous as the fox, and yet they defend them- 

 selves better than the fox. It is the beast of the 



^ G. de F., p. 76, adds : "And they farrow their pigs in their 

 burrows as does the fox." 



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