BADGER. 57 



the hind feet. His weight may be anything up to 40 Ibs. The 

 Badger is by no means particular as to the nature of his food : 

 he is a general feeder, and most things appear to be to his 

 liking, whether young rabbits, voles, hedgehogs, birds that have 

 dropped from the nest, mice, snakes, lizards, grubs of wasps 

 and humble-bees, for which he will rout out underground nests, 

 and beetles from under bark or among decaying leaves. On 

 the vegetable side he is known to hunt for fleshy roots, to pick 

 up acorns and other fruit, and C. St. John found he had a 

 liking for the bulbs of the Bluebell that is to say, he frequently 

 found them about the Badger's holes. 



The female prepares a special lying-in chamber well furnished 

 with moss and grass, and there in spring or summer the young 

 cubs or " earth-pigs," three or four in number, are born blind 

 and helpless. These are at first a silver-grey colour, but later 

 they become dull brownish-yellow and finally darker blue-grey, 

 when the characteristic black and white stripes appear on the 

 cheeks. The blue-grey tint harmonises with the half-tones of 

 the wood late in the evening, and the strong contrast between 

 the black and white stripes fits in with the lights and shadows 

 of the moonlit wood. The Badger is not a sprinter, and little 

 of his animal food is obtained by running it down. The birds, 

 voles, and rabbits he captures are mostly sickly or wounded, 

 and he has been known to visit regularly, night after night, the 

 ground under a rookery, in order to pick up luckless squabs 

 that have fallen from the nests. He is said to be clever in 

 . springing traps without being caught, by the heroic plan of 

 rolling upon them, and then walking off with the bait. His 

 ordinary gait and form suggest the bear ; and for many years 

 naturalists classed him among bears, but his affinities are now 

 known to be with the Otter and the Weasels. He is exceedingly 

 clean in his personal habits, and to prevent defilement of his 

 " set," digs pits in the neighbourhood for offensive waste. 



If an ascertained Badger " set " be watched in the late 



