22 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



which the demon of bricks and mortar already casts an evil 

 eye ; and the stoat and weasel only hold their own on account 

 of their diminutive size, and the comparative ease with 

 which they obtain a supply of food. They are among the 

 animals which are gradually eliminated out of existence by 

 the encroachments of man, and it may be that in a few years a 

 stoat or weasel may be as rare in England as a Badger is at the 

 present day. 



The fossorial limbs of the Badger are iiseful in various ways ; 

 for not only do they enable their owner to dig a domicile which, 

 none dare invade without the help of man, but they aid him in 

 obtaining a kind of food to which he is particularly partial 

 The Badger is tolerably omnivorous, but has a special liking for 

 insects in their immature state, and wiU dig up the nests of wasps 

 and other subterranean hymenoptera, for the sake of devouring 

 the larvse. Some writers say that the Badger scrapes out the 

 wasp-combs on account of the lume.y contained in them, but as 

 no British wasp makes a cell that can hold honey, or is capable 

 of gathering and storing that sweet substance, the Badger might 

 scrape for a very long time before it earned a meal. 



In like manner the Mink, the Vison, and other weasels of 

 Northern America are in the habit of retiring to holes and 

 crevices, but do not appear to form burrows for themselves. 

 The Honey Eatel {Mellivora Ratel) does, it is true, scrape deep 

 holes in the ground with very great rapidity, but then the crea- 

 ture cannot be ranked among the true weasels, and by many 

 authors is thought to approach closely to the bears. 



The exact classification of animal habitations involves a task 

 not easily accomplished, inasmuch as so many of them partake 

 of characteristics which might entitle them to be placed under 

 various categories. The rabbit, for example, might be considered 

 either as a social or a burrowing animal, and the same may be 

 said of the common wasp, the humble bee, and many other insects. 



The Pbaieie Dog {SpermopMliis Lvdovicianus) may, like the 

 rabbit, be considered equally as a burrower or a social animal, 

 and we wiU therefore place it in the former of these categories. 



This animal is sometimes called the Wish-ton-wish, but it is 

 usually known by the name of Prairie Dog, though it is a rodent 

 and not a carnivorous animal. The reason of its popular name 



