THE BADGER'S STEALTH 121 



is to put the hen and her coop on a raised platform. 

 This lessens any risk the hen may have to run from 

 vermin, and encourages her brood to fly to the 

 roost. 



A badger may come to a neighbourhood and stay 

 for a long while unnoticed. He prowls at night, 

 unseen and unsuspected, and people may 

 The t suppose there is no badger within miles. 

 Stealth * n tne same way otters are at home in many 

 a stream where nobody dreams there is 

 an otter in the neighbourhood. But let the badger's 

 presence be discovered, and he will be persecuted 

 to the end. The wise badger shifts his tent at once 

 if a human nose is poked into it ; all badgers would 

 profit if they went to the fox for a few wrinkles. 

 The foxes have a maxim : Never be at home to callers 

 who may come again. A visiting-card, in the shape of 

 a particle of scent, is more than enough acquaintance 

 for a fox with a human being. 



Even the gamekeeper often harbours a badger 

 unknowingly. What he does not suspect he does 

 not look for. And if he were to look for a month 

 for signs of a badger he might never find one. Again 

 and again he might pass within sight of a badger's 

 holt, and think it to be the retreat of a fox. But 

 by chance he might come upon a clear imprint of 

 a badger's tracks, and after that it would not take 

 him long to discover the badger's lair. While not 



