24 THE BADGER 



miss 'frosted heather' from their long catalogue of 

 causes of grouse disease. 



IX 



Mr. Pease has done good service to British Zoology in 

 Pke drawing attention to one of our most in- 



Badger teresting wild animals (though not the largest, 

 as he describes it, for the red deer and the roe excel 

 the badger in stature and weight). Perhaps his little 

 treatise x has come in time to postpone the necessity for 

 an epitaph on the last British brock; and it may be 

 hoped that warm advocacy by one well known as a 

 keen sportsman may redeem the race from unmerited 

 obloquy, rescue it from the opprobrium which con- 

 signed it to the category of vermin, and restore it to its 

 ancient position among beasts of venery. 

 It is rough, hard work, badger-hunting. 



'I have, with my brother, Mr. J. A. Pease, started at 7.30 

 A.M. from home, worked a summer day with a slight refresh- 

 ment at one, handled pick and shovel and spade, fought the 

 terriers, and gone on through the afternoon, evening, and a 

 black, wet night, without even a drop of water to slake our 

 parched throats, deserted by all but one faithful workman, 

 and on till the grey dawn of another day. ... At five 

 o'clock we secured a splendid pair of badgers, which we 

 bore home on our aching backs, followed by our gallant 

 little team of draggled and dirty terriers.' 



The disposal of the game when taken is a problem. 

 Mr. Pease finds that badgers make sympathetic pets, 



1 The Badger, a monograph, by Alfred E. Pease, M.F., London. 

 Lawrence and Bullen, Ld. 1898. 



