292 VERTEBRATA. 



Though tin' badger is Found throughout all the northern parts of Europe and Asia, it is rather 

 a scarce animal everywhere. Its food is chiefly roots, fruits, insects, and frogs, bul it likewise 



destroys tl ggs and young of partridges and other birds which build <>n the ground, and 



attacks the nests of the wild bees, which it robs with impunity, as the Length of its hair and the; 

 thickness of its hide render it insensible to the sting of the bee. H lives in deep burrows, which 

 it excavates, reposing in them during the day, and going forth at evening in search of its food. 

 It chooses the most solitary woods for its residence, is quiet and inoffensive in its manners, hut 

 when attacked defends itself with a courage and resolution which few dogs of double its own 



Bize and weight can over< le. It bites angrily, and holds on with great tenacity, which it is 



enabled to do the more easily from the peculiar construction of the articulation or hinge that 

 connects its under jaw with the skull, and which consists of a transverse condyle completely 

 locked into a bony cavity of the cranium. 



In England and Scotland this animal is rare, hut the cruel sport of baiting the badger is still 



practiced. The | r brute is placed inside a kennel or cask, and dogs set at it, who are not unfre- 



quently worsted by the badger, as its bite is terrific, and its skin so tough and loose, and the hair 

 >o thick, that the bites of the dog do not take full effect. The pleasure of this "sport,' 1 as in many 

 other diversions of the sporting world, appears to consist in trying whether the dogs or the badger 

 will be most mangled in a given time. The irritating the. badger so as to make him more furious, 

 has given rise to a word in all the dictionaries — that of badgering. 



The badger is not mentioned by Aristotle in his Natural History, and possibly it may not be 

 found in Greece, as the ancient language of that country has not even a name for it, and as it i- 

 less common in the southern than in the northern parts of Europe. Pliny, however, notice-, it 

 under the name of Melts, and various other Roman authors have spoken of it. More recent 

 writers call it T<i.vns, a name perhaps derived, like other Roman names of northern animals, from 

 the German language, in which the badger is called Zachs or Dacks ; in Dutch, Das. 



The female brings forth her young in the early part of spring, to the number of three, four, 

 or five; she continues to suckle them carefully for the first five or six weeks, and afterward 

 -tom- them gradually to shift for themselves. When taken young they are easily tame], and 

 become as familiar and playful as puppies; they soon learn to distinguish their master, and 

 show their attachment by following or fawning upon those who feed them; the old, however, are 

 always indocile, and continue solitary and distrustful under the most gentle treatment. 



The badger is hunted in some parts of Europe during the bright moonlight nights, when he 

 goes abroad in search of food. The hide, when properly dressed, makes the best pistol furniti 



hair is valuable for making brushes to soften the shades in painting ; and the hind-quartere, 

 when salted and smoked, are said to make excellent hams. Bell informs us that he saw dozens 

 of badgers at a time hanging in the i neat-markets of Pekin : there seems, indeed, no reason why 

 it should be inferior to the flesh of the bear, which is universally esteemed by all who have 

 tasted it. 



The American /!<i</</<r measures aboul two feet and a half from the muzzle to the root of tin 

 tail, which i- five inches more, [ts snout is less attenuated than that of the European spec 

 though In head i- equally long; its ears are short and round, the claws of its fore-feet much 

 Longer in proportion than those of the common species, its tail comparatively shorter, its fur i 

 quality altogether different, its colors also very different, and its appetites more decidedly carnh 

 orous; the lead and extremities alone are covered with short coarse hair ; all the other pail- 

 of tin- body are furnished with remarkably soft, line, silky fur, upward of four inches in length, 

 and differing only in being rather more sparingly supplied on the under than on the upper parts. 



This animal, the Carcajou of r.uifon, the Taxus Labradoricus of Long's Expedition, the Taxidt 

 Carcajou ofGervais, is called Brairo and Siffleur by the Canadians, Mistonusk and Awawteeka 

 or the Digging Animal, by the Crees, and Chocartoosh by the Pawnee Indians. Its form a 

 hal.it- have been described by Sir John Richardson as follows : 



"The Melt Labradorica frequents the sandy plains or prairies which skirt the Rocky Moun- 

 tain- a- tar north a- the hank- of the Peace River, and sources of the River of the Mountain-, 

 latitude oH". It abounds on the plain- watered by the Missouri, hut its exact southern range has 



