Vv 
THE BADGER AND HIS KIN 
Many an animal lives beside us, of which we 
are told by those genial vagabonds, the hunters, 
or whose traces constantly present themselves, 
but of which we rarely catch even a glimpse. 
These creatures continue to pursue their own 
secluded manner of living, while men increase 
around them, and civilization alters their environ- 
ment, accommodating themselves as well as they 
can to human interference with their habits and 
subsistence, and surviving or even profiting by the 
changes, but keeping aloof from the eyes of men. 
I have been using the word “animals” here in 
its special popular sense of designating the. four- 
footed, hairy creatures technically termed Mam- 
mals; and it is a curious and notable lack in our 
English speech that we have no vernacular word 
which exactly stands for this most definite and 
familiar of zodlogical groups: “ quadruped ’’ won’t 
do, where precision is desirable, since many rep- 
tiles, as lizards and turtles, have four feet; and I 
see no help for it but to popularize the word 
“mammal,” which is not a very “hard” one to 
learn. 
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