FEBRUARY 31 



bergen, Novaya Zembla, and elsewhere in that inhos- 

 pitable region, absolutely declines to reproduce its kind 

 in captivity, pining and dying if kept away from the salt 

 water. 



It is a cardinal feature of the inscrutable scheme of 



nature that the vast majority of living creatures 



, , , . ,, The Badger 



exist by harassing and devouring creatures ot 



other kinds. Man himself has fallen in readily with this 

 part of the scheme, and although furnished with teeth in- 

 tended for the mastication of fruits and roots, herbs and 

 grain, far exceeds all other animals in abundance and 

 variety of bloodshed. He receives fitting reward in the 

 abhorrence of every wild creature. Beast, bird, and fish 

 flee from his presence as from the accursed thing. 



A pretty trite reflection this, but it has been brought 

 uppermost by the behaviour of certain badgers which I 

 endeavoured to establish, and did establish, in my woods 

 more than twenty years ago. To speak more precisely, it 

 was an attempt at re-establishment, because undoubtedly 

 the badger was one of the commonest animals all over the 

 south of Scotland before the disappearance of the forests. 

 It is now exceedingly rare, and at the time I speak of had 

 become totally extinct in Galloway. But how abundant 

 it once was, let the occurrence of the word broc in place- 

 names testify. That was, and is, the Celtic name for this 

 animal, and was borrowed by the Saxon settlers, super- 

 seding their own names for it ' gray ' and ' bawson.' 

 Hence we find Kilbrocks in Galloway, from the Gaelic 

 coill-broc, 'wood of the badgers,' and Kilbrook near 

 Moffat, ' wood of the badger,' from the genitive singular 



