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badger’s gestation. It is just possible she might have been in the 
family way some time before she was caught. I think it is not 
generally known that the badger delights as much in devouring a 
wasp’s nest as a bear delights in robbing a bee-hive. I have footed 
many a badger up to a wasps’ nest, and have seen the hole he has 
scratched to get at it. A few yards off I have noticed where he sat 
down to eat his buttered toast. Are their skins proof against the 
venomous sting of a wasp ?—F'rederick Heycock ; Bedford. 
[As far as we are aware there is no authentic account of the period 
of the badger’s gestation. Several instances are on record of badgers 
having produced young in confinement, but when the young were 
begotten no one could tell. In the ‘ Field’ of April 6, 1861, Mr. Henry 
Shaw, of High Street, Shrewsbury, gives an account of a fact very 
similar to that now reported by Mr. Heycock. It was as follows:— 
“A badger which has been in confinement since April 3, 1860, at 
Haughton Hall, Salop, brought forth on April 12, 1861, two young 
ones alive, which appear scarcely to have arrived at maturity; unfor- 
tunately, both have died since. The badger was taken in Cornwall, 
and sent per rail to the above place in a box, since which time she has 
been confined in a place where nothing could by possibility get at her.” 
In reply to Mr. Shaw’s question as to the ordinary time of gestation, 
* An Old Bushman” stated in the ‘ Field’ of May 11, 1861, that “ the 
female goes with young never longer than ten weeks ;” but the only 
evidence he gives is that the male and female come together early in 
November, and new-born young are found at the end of February 
(which really amounts to some thirteen or fourteen weeks). This fact; 
however, would be as compatible with gestation lasting about fifteen 
months as with its lasting only three months, unless there were some 
means of identifying the individuals, which we do not see could be 
effected with certainty by any other means than by keeping them in 
confinement. Have any other of our readers evidence to offer? and 
have female badgers containing young been killed during the summer . 
months? which would not be likely to be the case if “ An Old Bush- 
man’s” statement be correct.—d. of ‘ Field.’ | 
Period of Gestation of the Badger.—In answer to Mr. Heycock’s 
inquiries about the period of gestation of the badger, I dug out a male 
and female badger from a small earth last year in the month of April. 
‘I kept the female until the end of June, when she died. On opening 
her I found three young ones distinctly developed; so that the mother 
