34 WOODLAND CREATURES 



attributed to the " spring-cleaning " habits of 

 the badger. 



In very bad weather badgers remain curled 

 up in their warm beds deep underground, but 

 they cannot be said to really hibernate, as they 

 never rest for long, and are soon out and about 

 again, which you can easily prove by looking for 

 their tracks, which you can find all the year round 

 save for short periods in the very coldest weather. 

 Even severe frost never put my tame badgers 

 to sleep, but Crumps did lie up once, during 

 warm weather, because I had changed his quarters, 

 but his sulks only lasted for a week. 



It is sometimes stated that badgers mark the 

 trunks of trees by standing against them and 

 " sharpening their claws " like cats. In all my 

 wanderings through badger-haunted woods, I 

 have never come across the slightest trace of 

 their doing so, and as they cannot retract and 

 extend their claws like the cat, it seems, to say 

 the least, most unlikely that they ever do any- 

 thing of the sort. The nearest approach to such 

 a habit is that they will sometimes scrape moss 

 off a tree trunk for the sake of grubs hidden 

 beneath it ; indeed, I have a photograph of Diana 

 in the act of doing so, but this is a different matter 

 to sharpening their claws in the timber. 



In concluding this chapter I would beg anyone 

 who has the chance of doing so to protect this 

 most interesting and inoffensive animal. If those 

 who befriend the badger gain no other reward, 

 they will have the satisfaction of knowing that 



