CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS 269 



and now and then a snake or frog, a nest of 

 ground-building birds, or even a settler's young 

 chickens when they wandered too far afield; but 

 he rarely if ever raids a poultry-yard. These, 

 however, are incidents of his carnivorous pur- 

 suits, which are mainly nocturnal. The bulk of 

 his food is found in the small and always mis- 

 chievous rodents. As Osgood says : 



"Almost the whole life of the badger is spent in 

 digging out the various rodents that constitute its 

 food. It requires two or three fat ground squirrels 

 a day, or a few gophers and a dozen mice, to keep a 

 badger in good condition. ... In case of pocket- 

 gophers the badger digs down in several places along 

 the line of the burrow and sometimes succeeds in 

 cornering and capturing the occupant. Mice are 

 easily unearthed, and a nest of young mice is a special 

 delicacy. . . . When in pursuit of a gopher, a 

 badger may dig into and endanger ditch-banks, but 

 in most cases the gopher, if left alone, would do far 

 more mischief. 



"Practically the only enemy of the badger is man, 

 and it seems incomprehensible that men of intelli- 

 gence should wantonly destroy on every possible oc- 

 casion the most useful and least harmful of all our 

 native mammals. So generally, however, are badgers 

 killed that after a valley has been settled for some 

 time they become extremely scarce, and are really in 

 danger of local extermination. As a result one of 



