BADGER 



Taxidea taxus. 



This odd looking beast who seldom ventures out by day, and 

 who if surprised by being discovered on those rare occasions when 

 he does, simply spreads out his broad flat body as closely to the 

 ground as possible, trusting with good reason to be taken for nothing 

 more interesting than a hummock of grass. Is fairly common, if not 

 often seen, from Yukon south to Mexico and Texas, and east to the 

 Great Lakes. The cautious disposition which leads this clumsy 

 creature to defer his journeys abroad until after dark is a great 

 aid to the preservation and increase of his kind, as is also the fact 

 that his long sharp teeth possess the peculiar power of locking them- 

 selves into any enemy upon whom they once get a grip. 



As he is some two feet in length, he is one of the largest of the 



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