HARMLESSNESS OF THE BADGER. 121 



employed by the badger in wrenching out the 

 tough, interwoven and deeply-imbedded roots 

 of the trees which impede the excavation of his 

 den ; a process which is further facilitated by 

 the immense muscular power of his jaws, and 

 their peculiar structure and articulation ; and, 

 although he occasionally devours some of the 

 smaller quadrupeds, yet his food is principally 

 derived from the vegetable and insect worlds. 

 Chestnuts, roots of all kinds, blackberries, beech- 

 mast, and all manner of beetles, with thfe larvae 

 of wasps and wild bees, furnish his ordinary 

 supplies ; while even frogs and snakes contribute 

 to vary his dietary during the summer and 

 autumn. It is therefore difficult to palliate the 

 senseless persecution which, in these islands, has 

 already doomed the species to a gradual but 

 certain destruction. 



"While black-game seem to require a combi- 

 nation of wood and swamp, a considerable extent 

 of open mountain or heathery moor is necessary 

 for the red grouse ; for, like the Indian of 

 kindred hue, he recedes before the plough of 

 the white man ; nor have the many laudable 

 attempts to re-establish the species in districts 

 from which it had once disappeared been at- 

 tended with success. The experiment has been 

 tried in Devonshire, in Dorset, in Sussex and 



G 



