BADGER 



WAYS OF THE HUNTED 



AT many, now and again at most forms of hunting, even 

 the robust countryman may feel queasy. An old sportsman 

 used to say that there were only two animals that could be 

 hunted : the fox and the rat. And, indeed, ' Hunting ' with- 

 out qualification means fox hunting. Doubtless hare hunt- 

 ing is the older sport, but either to shoot the hare or hunt 

 her has in it something that goes against the grain. 

 Coursing has always seemed to some of us the very worst 

 of all sports, though as a spectacle of lithe movement and 

 the courage of flight, if the phrase is allowable, nothing 

 equals it. But the hare is too soft and timid to hunt with 

 any pleasure. And how different from the fox! When 

 you watch him move, sly and cautiously, alert to hear any 

 noise, ready to take any cover, yet looking angry as well as 

 cunning you almost come to believe Jorrocks's breezy con- 

 jecture, ' The 'untsmen like it, the 'ounds like it, the 'orses 

 like it, and we don't know as the fox don't like it/ 



How all hunted beasts disclose during pursuit their 

 cardinal character : the fox, the otter, the badger, the deer, 

 the hare, the rabbit, the stoat and weasel, and their behaviour 

 * under fire ' is worth some discussion. 



The badger, which is a very much commoner animal 

 than most people suppose, behaves in a manner quite 

 peculiarly his own. He is inflexibly courageous and blindly 



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