THE BADGER 



and deprived of the sanitary arrangements 

 to which he is accustomed, that he becomes 

 offensive. Writers are not correct in saying 

 that he never deposits his dung in his earth, 

 but as a rule he does not, and his habit is 

 to go some Httle distance from his home, dig 

 a hole, and there leave his excrement. He 

 will use the same hole for a few days, and 

 then cover it up with earth and make a new 

 one. There is a smell about a badger 

 "earth," but it is not disagreeable, and no- 

 thing like so rank and strong as that of a 

 fox's. He is, however, often troubled with 

 lice and ticks, so that it is desirable when 

 your dogs have been to ground carefully to 

 wash them. But in this respect a badger is 

 not worse than sheep and goats, and with 

 such a coat as he has it is no wonder that 

 it is sometimes tenanted. The same dis- 

 tinguished authority states that the badger 

 produces its young in summer, but I have 

 never known this happen. March is the 

 usual month, and the rule is not earlier than 

 February nor later than April. A naturalist 

 at Cambridge told me that he knew of a 



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