THE BADGEK. 21 



animal takes advantage of some ready-made cavity, mostly con- 

 tenting itself with accepting the retreat, and at the best, merely 

 scraping and adapting the spot to suit its own purposes. 



The Weasel is certainly no excavator. It takes up its habita- 

 tion in rocky crevices, imder the gnarled roots of old trees, in the 

 interstices between stones, and similar localities, stone-heaps being 

 always favourite spots. Ladies who build their picturesque 

 rockeries for the culture of ferns, would be very much surprised 

 if they knew how often the Weasel takes possession of the stones, 

 and how the interior of the mimic rock is tenanted by these 

 snake-necked, red-bodied, bright-eyed little creatures. Should 

 they perchance see a Weasel poking its intelligent little head out 

 of a crevice, they should not be alarmed, but do their best to 

 encourage an animal so useful, a little ally that will do more 

 towards clearing the garden of mice and other nocturnal depre- 

 dators than all the ratcatchers in the neighbourhood. 



One of the Weasel tribe is, however, a most powerful and 

 industrious excavator. This is the Badgee (Meles taxus), an 

 animal which was fonnerly considered as our only surviving 

 British representative of the bear tribe, but is now found to 

 belong to the weasels. 



The Badger makes a most gloomy, dark, and tortuous burrow, 

 generally excavated in some retired and shadowy spot, such as 

 dense thickets, or the recesses of thickly-wooded forests. As is 

 the case with several burrowing animals, there are several 

 chambers in its domicile, one of which is appropriated as a nur-. 

 sery, and is warmly padded with dry mosses and grass. 



The Badger is a creature that cannot live in close proximity 

 to human beings, and has, in consequence, been gradually 

 banished from the greater part of England. Forest after forest 

 falls before the woodman's axe, mile upon mile of barren bog- 

 land is drained and converted into fertile, food-producing soil ; 

 and so, to the very great satisfaction of the political economist, 

 and the very great discomfiture of the naturalist, aU our large 

 carnivora, whether furred or feathered, are gradually ousted 

 from the soil whereon they formerly exercised imquestioned 

 sway. The Badger has long ago been driven out of the land ; 

 the otter is but seldom seen in the rivers where it was once so 

 plentiful ; the polecat and martens have retired into the deepest 

 recesses of the few forests wliich are still left to us, but over 



