90 ETON NATURE-STUDY 



corresponding change in its structure. The great length of. time 

 that elapses before the young go to the water, and the trouble 

 which the old otter takes to teach them to swim, would seem 

 to favour this view. 



Evidence might be collected to prove whether or not the badger 

 is really an enemy to game. Very contradictory statements are rife 

 as to this point. Again, the alleged remarkable power of delayed 

 gestation requires investigation. Female badgers are reported to 

 have given birth to young after many months of solitary confine- 

 ment. The same is said of the roe deer. Again, we have very 

 scanty accounts from eye-witnesses, of badgers in their natural 

 surroundings. 



The pole-cat and marten are such rare animals that any 

 observations relating to them are of interest, especially as to 

 the reputed habit of the former of paralysing such creatures as 

 frogs, toads and eels, by biting them through the brain, in the 

 same way as the " solitary wasp " does the other insects which 

 are stored up as food for her young, by stinging them in a nerve 

 centre. 



Further knowledge as to the alleged migration of the stoat and 

 weasel is also to be wished for, and the experiment of breeding the 

 former with the ferret should be repeated. Mr Cocks' hybrids 

 will breed with the ferret, and then the offspring loses the special 

 characteristics of the other progenitor. 



The common hare is, again, an animal known to all, yet doubt 

 exists as to the number of litters which it produces in the 

 year. Professor Conrad* has produced a hare-rabbit hybrid (by 

 bringing up the young ones of the two species together), which pro- 



* " History of Creation," by Ernst Haeckel, vol. i, page 157. 



