CULTURE OF FUR-BEARERS = 269 
and now and then a snake or frog, a nest of 
ground-building birds, or even a settler’s young 
chickens when they wandered too far afield; but 
he rarely if ever raids a poultry-yard. These, 
however, are incidents of his carnivorous pur- 
suits, which are mainly nocturnal. .The bulk of 
his food is found in the small and always mis- 
chievous rodents. As Osgood says: 
‘Almost the whole life of the badger is spent in 
digging out the various rodents that constitute its 
food. It requires two or three fat ground squirrels 
a day, or a few gophers and a dozen mice, to keep a 
badger in good condition. . . . In case of pocket- 
gophers the badger digs down in several places along 
the line of the burrow and sometimes succeeds in 
cornering and capturing the occupant. Mice are 
easily unearthed, and a nest of young mice is a special 
delicacy. . . . When in pursuit of a gopher, a 
badger may dig into and endanger ditch-banks, but 
* in most cases the gopher, if left alone, would do far 
more mischief. 
““Practically the only enemy of the badger is man, 
and it seems incomprehensible that men of intelli- 
gence should wantonly destroy on every possible oc- 
casion the most useful and least harmful of all our 
native mammals. So generally, however, are badgers 
killed that after a valley has been settled for some 
time they become extremely scarce, and are really in 
danger of local extermination. As a result one of 
