THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. VI.] JANUAEY, 1882. [No. 61. 



THE PAST AND PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF SOME OF 

 THE RARER ANIMALS. OF SCOTLAND. 



By ,). A. Habvie Brown, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. 



IV. The Badger. 



Although still a common British quadruped, the Badger is 

 not nearly so numerous or so widely distributed as formerly. 

 Proofs of its former abundance are forthcoming from almost every 

 county of Scotland; topography teems with places called after 

 the " Brock." The following are only a few instances from many 

 selected to illustrate its former distribution : — Alt-nam-broc, in 

 Bosshire ; Carn-broc, Ayrshire ; Eas-nam-broc (" the Badger's 

 Waterfall "), Invernesshire ; Strath-broc, Linlithgowshire ; Monia- 

 broc, Stirlingshire ; Mona-broc, Benfrewshire (the two latter 

 meaning Badger's Hill) ; Craig -nam-broc, Argyleshire. 



In nearly all of these counties many more instances might 

 be given of the use of the name in topography ; and in England 

 also are many, as Brockley Hill in Middlesex, Brockhurst in 

 Shropshire, and Brockworth in Gloucestershire. Many of these 

 localities are still known as the haunts of Badgers at the present 

 day, and have, in most cases, been frequented by Badgers from 

 an extremely early date. They are also still far from uncommon 

 in England, and recent reports have been received of their occur- 

 rence within a few miles of London. Thus, at Dollis Hill Farm, 

 Willesden, as I am informed by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks (now 

 Lord Tweedmouth), a Badger was dug out about five years 



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