THE BADGER 



widower, but in either case he will travel 

 far to seek a partner to share his shelter 

 and his lot. It is not altogether rare to find 

 an old solitary dog badger, who has loved 

 and lost, or taken in late age to a hermit's 

 cell ; but he, as often as not, when he has 

 failed to secure the companionship of the 

 gentler sex, has found some other male to 

 share his home, when they can live comfort- 

 ably en garcon. 



Nor do the married pair shun the society 

 of their kind. I have often seen large badger 

 " sets " almost as full of badgers as a warren 

 is of rabbits. One evening, near my house, 

 I waited an hour of midge-plagued time to 

 watch the badgers come out from a small 

 "set," and was rewarded by seeing a pro- 

 cession of seven full-grown badgers emerge 

 from a single hole, and I had them all in 

 full view for something like twenty minutes. 

 As this was in July they could hardly be one 

 family. They were every one more than a 

 year old, and a badger's family is usually 

 two in number, sometimes three, and never 

 more than four ; and this last is exceedingly 



SI 



