NOTES AND QUERIES. 139 



which are preserved at Muncaster Castle. I may add that the channel 

 of the Duddon is shifting and running close into the sides of an old peat 

 moss, from which it seems not unlikely that the horns have been washed. 

 — T. N. Postlethwaitb ( Hallthwaites, Millom, Cumberland). 



[We are obliged for the excellent sketches which accompanied this 

 note, and which indicate the former existence in England of Red-deer with 

 far finer heads than are to be seen at the present day. The animals that 

 carried them may have been wanderers from the great forest of Bowland, 

 in Lancashire, where Red-deer lingered until the early part of the present 

 century (1805; ; or may have roamed over Murtindale Fell, in Westuiore- 

 Lmd, where a few of their descendants are still preserved, a pleasing link of 

 association with the past. — Ed.] 



The Badger in Breconshire.— Breconshire may be added to the list 

 of counties in which the Badger occurs. It is fairly common here, but is 

 seldom seen on account of its nocturnal habits. There are at the present 

 time large badger-earths about two miles from the town, where they may 

 be always found together with foxes, and the two seem to dwell together 

 in perfect harmony. Although I have shot in the wood where these earths 

 are for twenty years, I have never seen a Badger there myself, but one of 

 my boys nearly trod on one rolled up in the fern on a bright sunny day 

 not far from its earth, into which it quickly disappeared. I may add that 

 the WeLh for Badger is not " Broch " as stated (p. 3), but " Diarfochyu " 

 or "Diarmochyn," literally, " earth-pig "; or sometimes " Byrfwch," 

 " hairy little fellow." The former name, however, is most generally used 

 here. All old Welsh scholars to whom I have mentioned the word 

 " Broch," say they have never heard it applied to the Badger. — 

 E. Cambridge Phillips (Brecon). 



A tame Badger. — Some of your readers may be interested to have a 

 few particulars of a tame Badger, in the possession of the Rev. G. Blomfield, 

 of Norton-sub- Hamden Rectory, with whom I have lately been staying. It 

 was found on Chissleboro' Hill (which joins the noted Ham Hill) eight years 

 ago, almost dead from hunger, and was then about eight inches long, and 

 could lie very comfortably in an open hand. It was supposed to have 

 crawled out of its earth and been unable to get up the steep bank again. 

 At first it was taken into the drawing-room, and in a few days it had quite 

 recovered, when it was transferred to the kitchen, but was often about the 

 house, and constantly found up stairs. As it grew to its full size, its 

 sleeping place was a barrel outside the back-door, which, if left open for a 

 few minutes, was certain to admit " Billy," as his prime favourite was the 

 cuok. It struck up a great friendship with the retriever, and could ofteu 

 be seen feeding out of the same dish. It was perfectly clean and free from 

 any offensive smell, its food consisted almost entirely of bread and milk. 



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