48 THE BADGER 



prisoner. Fetching his gun, he had the satisfac- 

 tion of slaying a large badger, caught flagrante 

 delicto. Such cases must, however, be con- 

 sidered as exceptional, and analogous to that 

 of the squirrel that has acquired the bad habit 

 of robbing little birds' nests of eggs and young, 

 or of the very rare case of a kestrel that has 

 taken to carrying off young pheasants from 

 the rearing-field ; perhaps as protest against 

 modern unsportsmanlike excesses in artificial 

 game-rearing ! 



A number of years ago there was some 

 correspondence in The Field as to the alleged 

 destruction of fox-cubs by badgers. In the 

 end the question remained undecided as to 

 whether such cases as had undoubtedly occurred 

 had been the work of some bad-tempered old 

 badger, or of an old dog-fox of similarly 

 unamiable character; they could not be attri- 

 buted to any general habit of the species as a 

 whole. 



It seems to be agreed on all hands that 

 badgers are a thirsty race and drink much 

 water. The popular notion that the badger 

 hibernates, as the dormouse, for instance, 

 does, is incorrect. They spend, indeed, much 

 of the winter in sleep in their cosy underground 

 chambers, especially in long-continued hard 



