MAMMALIA — BADGER. 119 



man, and digs a subterraneous residence, where it spends, at least, three 

 fourths of its existence, and never ventures forth but in search of food. It 

 burrows in the ground with particular facility, as its body is rather of an 

 oblong form, and its claws, those especially of the fore feet, are very long 

 and compact. The hole which it thus forms often proceeds to a great depth 

 below the surface of the earth, and the passage to it is always oblique and 

 winding. 



The fox, who is less expert at such excavations, often appropriates to his 

 own convenience the labors of the badger. 



Unable to compel him from his retreat by force, it drives him from it by 

 stratagem, often remains a fixed sentinel at the mouth of the passage, 

 disturbs it, and, as an infallible expedient, it is said, emits his ordure. The 

 badger gone, he immediately assumes possession of it, enlarges it, and every 

 way accommodates it to his own purpose. Though forced to remove to 

 another habitation, this animal does not, however, remove to another coun- 

 try. At a little distance from its old burrow, it forms a new one, from 

 which it never stirs but at night. The dogs easily overtake it when it is at 

 any distance from its hole, and then, using all its strength, and all its pow- 

 ers of resistance, it throws itself upon its back, and defends itself with 

 desperate resolution. It has one single advantage over its assailants. The 

 skin is so thick, and especially so loose, that the teeth of the dogs can make 

 little impression on it, and the badger can turn himself round in it, so as to 

 bite them in their tenderest parts. 



The young badgers are easily tamed ; they will play with young dogs, 

 and, like them, will follow any person whom they know, and from whom 

 they receive their food ; l)ut the old ones, in spite of every effort, still remain 

 wild. They are neither mischievous nor voracious, as the fox and the wolf 

 are, yet they are carnivorous ; and though raw meat is their favorite food, 

 yet they will eat any thing that comes in their way, as flesh, eggs, cheese, 

 butter, bread, fish, fruit, nuts, roots, &c. They sleep the greater part of 

 their time, without, however, being subject, like the mountain rat or the 

 dormouse, to a torpor during the winter ; and thus it is that though they 

 feed moderately, yet they are always fat. 



Their hole they keep exceedingly clean, nor are they ever known to void 

 their ordure in it. The male is rarely to be found with the female. In 

 summer she brings forth, and her usual number at a birth is three or four. 

 These she feeds at first with her milk, and afterwards with such petty prey 

 as she can surprise. She seizes young rabbits in the warren, robs birds of 

 their young, while yet in the nest, finds out where the wild bees have laid 

 up their honey, where field-mice, lizards, serpents, and grasshoppers are to 



the second and third pointed, the fourth cuttinp^ on the external side, the fifth tuberculous 

 and large ; body low upon the legs ; pcntadactyle ; nails robust ; tail short ; an anal 

 pouch, containing a fetia secretion. 



