9222 Sucklers. 
young badger which now lies before me was killed on June 20; it ist 
fifteen inches long, and the milk-teeth are still remaining, which leads 
me to believe that it was born about the end of February. The female 
goes with young nive or ten weeks” (and I never have heard this point 
disputed), “and brings forth three to five young, which are blind for 
nine days. These she suckles for about three weeks, and after that 
they follow her through the whole summer. It is supposed that they 
do not attain their full size until they are two years old.” The only 
mystery which I ever heard attached to the breeding habits of the 
badger here is that I never can meet with anyone who can proye'as an 
eye-witness when the union takes place; and this is not wonderful, if, 
as Ekstrom says, it occurs under-ground. Every forester in Wermland 
with whom I have spoken on the subject, says distinctly that the pairing 
takes place when the old female seeks her winter quarters in the 
autumn. ‘This is the only time, they say, that the male and female 
are seen together. Ifa male is killed in the summer he is always alone, 
and, during that season, you invariably see the old female in the forests 
attended by her cubs. Moreover, an instance has never been recorded 
here of a female badger heavy with young having been killed either in 
the summer or the autumn. As to the idea of their being thirteen or 
fifteen months with young, all our naturalists ridicule it. Is it not just 
possible that the two female badgers mentioned in your paper had by 
some means or other allured the old males to their places of confine- 
ment? It may appear impossible that such would be the case, but 
many things are considered to have been impossible till they are 
thoroughly investigated; and when men state any very extraordinary 
facts in Natural History, such as the present, it is a great pity they do 
not give us every particular. You have a Zoological Gardens in London, 
where the habits of almost any animal can be observed almost as freely 
as in a state of nature. How easily many doubts respecting their 
breeding and other habits could be cleared up if only the authorities 
and keepers of the Gardens would trouble themselves to make obser- 
vations. Here is a point in dispute, which could be easily set at rest 
in a place nearly as well adapted for studying the habits of smaller 
animals as in a state of freedom.—An Old Bushman; Sweden. 
{When the first instance was mentioned of a badger producing 
young after it had lived in seclusion for thirteen months, we thought, 
with “ An Old Bushman,” that there was some mistake, which, how- 
ever, can hardly be explained by the supposition that the female had 
allured a male, for, as was remarked a few weeks since, if there were 
means of ingress and egress for the one, there would be opportunity of 
