THE BADGER 



badger bitch that was many months in con- 

 finement (I think he said eighteen months), 

 and grave birth to cubs — but I was not con- 

 vinced of the accuracy of his statement that 

 she had never had access to one of her kind. 

 It is only fair to mention that Vyner, in his 

 Notitia Vcnatica, states that "It is a fact 

 perhaps not generally known, nevertheless 

 curious, that badgers go twelve months with 

 young. This fact I learned from a ncigh- 

 bottr of mine in Warwickshire, who some 

 years ago dug out in the spring a sow badger. 

 She was confined in an outhouse for twelve 

 months, at about which period she produced 

 one young one. During her confinement it 

 was impossible for her to have been visited 

 by a male." 



That an animal of this size should go with 

 young for such a period is so extraordinary, 

 and so great an exception to the ordinary 

 provisions of nature, that the theory requires 

 much greater support than mere hearsay 

 evidence. If it were a fact, or if it were 

 the rule, the evidence to support the theory 

 of twelve months' gestation should be over- 



54 



