A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



Their food supply covers a wide range, 

 but the chief source is furnished by the in- 

 vertebrate hosts beetles, worms, slugs, etc. ; 

 but nothing (in a fresh state) that I know of 

 except toads, that can be included under the 

 comprehensive term 'animal food,' comes amiss 

 to them. Stops of young rabbits, and old ones 

 to boot ; mice, and especially moles ; the young 

 of any ground-nesting bird they happen to meet 

 with, but I do not believe they interfere with 

 adult birds ; snakes, lizards and frogs are all 

 acceptable. The last named in captivity at 

 least they treat in a singular manner. Hold- 

 ing down the unlucky frog with one fore foot, 

 they literally scrub it to death with the palm 

 of the other foot ; the object being apparently 

 to get rid of the secretion of slime. I tried 

 my badgers one day with the carcase (without 

 skin and skull) of an old polecat which had 

 died extremely fat. They were not very 

 hungry, and a good choice of other food was 

 offered at the same time. Both badgers came 

 up and smelt the polecat, and seemed at first 

 not much to like it, but after a minute or two 

 the female in preference to the other varieties 

 of food, seized the carcase and began devour- 

 ing the intestines with evident relish. Next 

 morning not a vestige of the polecat was to be 

 found. Wasp and bee grubs and honeycomb 

 are appreciated as usually credited to them, 

 and I have also no doubt they eat certain 

 kinds of vegetable food green corn for one 

 but what the ' various roots ' are that books 

 always say they dig up, I am not botanist 

 enough to know, though I do not for a 

 moment doubt the fact. Mr. Harting in his 

 article already alluded to (Zoologist, 1888) 

 enumerates ' roots of various kinds, the bulbs 

 of the wild hyacinth, earth-nuts, beech-mast, 

 acorns, fungus, blackberries.' In captivity 

 they will eat all ordinary kinds of vegetables 

 boiled. Mr. W. Uthwatt writes to me : 



The idea that they drive away foxes is absurd, 

 there are hundreds of places where they have lived 

 together for centuries. Neither is there any proof 

 that they interfere with game, as there are never 

 any remains found that could be attributed to 

 them, either in their burrows or other haunts. 

 They like a dry sandy soil the best, by the side of 

 a hill, as this makes it easier digging. They have 

 been called the ' pioneers of fox-earths and the 

 natural miners of the country.' 



A curious point in their anatomy is in the 

 articular part of the glenoid fossa on the skull, 

 which receives the condyle of the lower jaw 

 on each side. The edges of these articular 

 parts are so prolonged and curled over the 

 condyles as to effectually clasp them in place ; 

 and even in a macerated skull the lower man- 



dible of an adult cannot be detached. The 

 digging powers of a badger are marvellous. 

 In soft ground they can bury themselves in a 

 very few minutes. Visiting a pair of badgers 

 in my possession, late one night, I found the 

 female more than her own depth underground, 

 though the floor of the cage was composed of 

 paving bricks set in cement and bedded on 

 concrete. One of a pair of these animals 

 formerly in my collection, aged eleven, was 

 found lying dead on the floor of the outer 

 part of the cage ; its abdomen was such an 

 enormous size that I supposed it was the 

 female that had died in parturition, and was 

 surprised to find that it was the male. The 

 enormous distention of the abdomen was 

 caused by a hydatid cyst in the liver, making 

 that organ quite half as large as a football. 

 Presumably the badger had swallowed an egg 

 of tapeworm with the intestines of a rabbit, 

 and not proving a suitable ' host ' for that pest, 

 the sco/ex had revenged itself by inflating itself, 

 and the unlucky badger's liver, into this huge 

 hydatid. 



19. Otter. Lutra lutra, Linn. 

 Bell Lutra vulgaris. 



Owing to the entire southern boundary of 

 the county being formed by the Thames, 

 whose waters with their bends flow for nearly 

 thirty miles within its confines, the county 

 boundary being as a rule in mid-stream, otters 

 are fairly well represented. Were it not for 

 the big river affording a certain measure of 

 shelter and opportunities for reproduction, 

 otters would be very scarce in the county ; 

 for as Mr. W. Uthwatt of Great Linford 

 Manor, Master of the Bucks Otter Hounds, 

 to whom I am indebted for some most inter- 

 esting notes on the species in the county, 

 quoted in due course, writes : 



The smaller rivers are supplied with otters from 

 the deep waters of the Thames and Ouse. It Js 

 disgraceful the way that otters are trapped and 

 shot on the Thames, on account of the ignorant 

 prejudice that they harm the fishing. A couple of 

 swans will do more harm to fish than twenty otters. 

 If they are killed on the big waters, the smaller 

 waters cannot be supplied, for this is only done by 

 otters travelling, they do not stay in one place 

 long. 



I am happy to say that the secretary of the 

 Thames Conservancy in response to a request 

 I made him in 1903, at the suggestion of Mr. 

 C. Barnett, of Mill End, Hambleden, has 

 now forbidden the lock-keepers and other 

 men in their employ to trap otters. 



Mr. Uthwatt considers that in North 

 Bucks ' there are not more than one or two 



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