ITS NAME 51 



tells us that in Middle- English Eager meant 

 corn-dealer. The Scottish name brock is of 

 course the same as the Gaelic and Irish broc y 

 Cornish and Breton brock, the root being 

 apparently doubtful. There is evidence of its 

 former wide distribution in the place-names 

 still extant, both in the Lowlands and, more 

 rarely, in the Highlands ; as ' Brocketsbrae, 

 Brockhole, Brockloch, Brockwood, Broxwood' 

 in the former ; * Garaidh-nam-Broc,' badgers' 

 den, to take only one example in the latter. 



The cruel pastime of badger-baiting has also 

 left its mark in the English language in the 

 every-day term 'to badger.' 



The badger is found throughout most parts 

 of Europe and North and Central Asia, south 

 of the Arctic circle. According to Blasius it 

 occurs in Italy, but not in the other Mediter- 

 ranean countries ; its American congener be- 

 longs to another species. In our own country 

 it is still to be found in many districts of Eng- 

 land, Scotland, and Ireland, although in ever 

 decreasing numbers ; it has apparently never 

 been known in the Scottish Islands. It still 

 exists as a breeding species, to the present 

 writer's knowledge, in Argyll and Perthshire. 

 According to Harvie-Brown 1 it is to be found, 



1 Vertebrate Fauna, 



