138 WILD ANIMALS WORTH STALKING 



with dogs with nothing more to do but tie up the 

 sack! To any one who knows Brock this sounds 

 very much like putting a pinch of salt on his tail. 

 I have known him to be caught by placing a purse 

 net over the earth, but this more often fails than 

 not, unless Master Badger is very hard pressed, 

 owing to his keen sense of smell, and even if he is 

 taken in this way it is only the matter of a few 

 seconds when he will cut his way out. He is 

 sometimes caught in an ordinary Rabbit trap, but 

 this is by no means an easy matter, for he has all 

 sorts of dodges to avoid getting his toes pinched. 

 Traps have been set at the entrance to his earth, 

 and I have known him to roll right over them; at 

 other times he will enlarge the entrance to pass 

 them safely. The most successful way of catch- 

 ing him that I know of is in wire snares set in the 

 runs he makes through the underwood to and from 

 his earth. This is done by fixing the wire on the 

 end of a Nut-hazel or Ash pole and bending it down 

 in such a way that, when he gets his head through 

 the wire and struggles to free himself, the pole is 

 released and the wire secures him. 



To dig him out of his earth is not often an easy 

 matter, even with the aid of dogs to locate him, for 

 he is such an excellent digger that he can work his 

 way on as fast as one can dig, especially in light 

 soil. 



Dogs that are good enough to fight and kill a 



