BADGERS AND BADGER BAITING 
found in Asia, one peculiar to Japan; and extinct species are 
known as far back as Pliocene strata. 
To this animal our language owes the expressive verb “‘to badger’; 
that is, to harass; and it comes from a practice in which our British fore- 
fathers took great delight — badger baiting. ‘‘In order to give the better 
effect to this diversion,” Strutt °° explains, ‘‘a hole is dug in the ground for 
the retreat of the animal; and the dogs run at him singly in succession; for 
it is not usual, I believe, to permit any more than one of them to attack him 
at once, and the dog which approaches him with the least timidity, fastens 
upon him the most firmly, and brings him the soonest from his hole, is 
accounted the best.’”’ But in its later times — and the ‘tsport” lasted in 
ae ee alt 
Copyright, N. Y. Zodlogical Society. Sanborn, Phot. 
THE AMERICAN BADGER. 
country places until the beginning of the nineteenth century — the poor 
creature was no longer treated with such fairness, but was put into a barrel 
laid upon its side and attacked by an unlimited number of dogs, among 
which it was able, often, to do much execution before overcome, thanks to 
its powerful jaws and sharp teeth. Old books show that this animal was 
formerly called “grey” or “brock”’ (still heard provincially), and that in 
Italy and France its flesh was considered a delicacy when made into hams 
or bacon; also that the skin when dressed with the hair on is impervious 
to rain, and was a favorite covering for trunks, while out of the hairs them- 
selves are made artists’ brushes. 
Our American badger resembles the European one in appear- 
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