How Animals Work. 



then the Badger stops in his forward and downward 

 progress to work backwards towards the entrance, 

 sweeping out the accumulation of loose earth with his 

 hind legs as he goes a simple matter for the Badger, 

 who seems to be able to progress backwards with almost 

 as much ease as forwards. The tunnels are often very 

 extensive and twenty or thirty feet long, their openings 

 above ground being a great distance apart, enabling 

 the Badger to quietly slip away unobserved should 

 danger arise. During the daytime the Badger rests 

 and sleeps peacefully on a clean, thick bed of dry fern 

 within his subterranean but airy chamber, only emerging 

 at nightfall to go in quest of food, which consists chiefly 

 of roots, fruits, snails, worms, and possibly an occa- 

 sional young rabbit. Normally a harmless, inoffensive 

 animal, the Badger, when provoked or righting for its 

 life, becomes a most formidable antagonist, for its sharp 

 teeth not only bite severely, but the jaws lock together 

 by a peculiar structure of their junction with the skull, 

 so that the Badger is able to hold on with a vicelike 

 grip. Once plentiful throughout England and Scot- 

 land, the Badger has now become comparatively rare, 

 so that only those people who are true lovers of the 

 country, who delight to wander in quiet woodlands 

 and to lie out under the stars at night, may hope now 

 and again to get a glimpse of this most interesting 

 animal. 



A small and very expert miner inhabiting Central 

 and North America is the Pouched Rat or Pocket- 

 gopher. It is a quaint little brownish-gray rodent 

 with a rather short, thick tail, and remarkably strong 

 feet, the front paws being armed with long, curved 



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