a THE ZOOLOGIST. 



is clothed with short fur, interspersed with longer coarse hairs 

 of a brownish grey colour ; the lower jaw, throat, and under parts 

 as well as the inside of the legs and feet, being black. A good 

 idea of the animal's general appearance is afforded by the accom- 

 panying figure (Plate I.), which has been lithographed from a 

 photograph taken from the life. 



The strength of jaw in the Badger and the sharpness of its 

 bite are proverbial. Those who may have the opportunity of 

 examining a skull should note the peculiar way in which the lower 

 jaw is articulated, quite unlike that of any other of our wild 

 animals. The glenoid surface of the upper jaw is so curved round 

 the condyle of the lower jaw as not only to support its weight, 

 but to render its separation almost impossible without fracture. 

 This peculiarity was long ago remarked by Sir Thomas Browne, 

 the celebrated physician of Norwich, who, writing in 1681 to his 

 son Edward, and refering to a Badger's skull which he had 

 given to Dr. Clarke, observed* : — " The lower jawe needes no 

 tying to the upper, but would move and holde to the upper jawe 

 without any tye." The same writer also has a curious chapter f 

 on the question whether (as the ancients believed) a Badger hath 

 the legs of one side shorter than the other, a fabled peculiarity 

 to which a previous writer and namesake, William Browne, the 

 author of 'Britannia's Pastorals' (1613), has thus alluded in 

 verse : — 



"And as that beast hath legs (which shepherds fear, 

 Yclept a Badger, which our lambs doth tear), 

 One long, the other short, that when he runs 

 Upon the plain, he halts ; j but when he runs 

 On craggy rock, or steepy hills, we see 

 None runs more swift or easier than he." 



That the Badger was at one time very generally distributed 

 throughout England seems probable, not only from the number 

 of fossil remains which have been found in various parts of the 

 country in deposits which prove it to have been co-existent with 

 the Mammoth and Megatherium, but also from the number of 



* Sir Thomas Browne's Works, ed. AVilkin, vol. i. p. 310. 

 f Op. cit. vol. ii. p. 408. 



I Like W. Browne's verses I The Badger was formerly supposed to be 

 destructive to young lambs. 



