Sucklers. 9223 
escape for the other, which undoubtedly would have been taken advan- 
tage of. When .a second instance was recorded, we thought-it de- 
sirable to draw out further evidence, if possible, and accordingly added 
the note to which our correspondent refers. Since he wrote he doubt- 
less will have received the ‘ Field’ of July 9, containing an account of 
what he says he has never heard a single instance of, namely, a badger 
containing young in the summer months. We have also, in the letter 
of Mr. Allies (published below), two other instances of gestation 
extending over a very long period. The evidence sent us now amounts 
to three female badgers having produced young after being kept apart 
from the other sex more than twelve months; a fourth where the 
separation had lasted ten months; and a fifth which died at the end 
of June, and was found to contain young. We shall be glad of any 
farther evidence tending to clear up the mystery. “ An Old Bushman” 
asks, “ Do you know of any mammal in which the period of gestation 
lasts fifteen months?” Of our own knowledge we do not; but it is 
said that gestation in the elephant lasts twenty months.—Ed. of 
‘Field.’] 
Period of Gestation of the Badger.—In answer to the question, 
“What is the time of gestation with the badger?” I send you the 
following facts:—Some twenty years ago Mr. Joseph Thomas, head 
ostler of the Bell Hotel, Broad Street, Worcester, bought a female 
badger for baiting with dogs. She was constantly subject to these 
baiting entertainments for full ten months, when she brought forth 
three young ones, two of which were reared up to twelve months old, 
and then sold to go to the Surrey Zoological Gardens. The owner of 
the mother-badger was ignorant‘of her interesting condition, or I feel 
sure he would not have allowed such cruelty to be practised. 
A very respectable gentleman of my acquaintance says that he had a 
badger in his care in confinement for more than twelve months, after 
and about which time she proved to be with young, which were brought 
forth alive and well.— Frederick Allies; 8, Foregate Street, Wor- 
cester. 
——d 
Note on the Byblus-Bok.—In the same plate of Speke’s sketch, that excellent 
animal-artist, Mr. Wolf, has given the figures of a fine antelope, called nzoé or “* water- 
bok.” The male of this species bears a pair of noble, long, twisted horns, and he is 
said to be “ closely allied to a water-buk found by Dr. Livingstone on the Ngami 
Lake.” It is an aquatic species, and, from living in the moist element, the hair of its 
