~i!.t-«=. ^^— 



BADGER AND WASFS' NEST 



CHAPTER XXXI 



The Badger : Antiquity of ; Cleanliness ; Abode of ; Food ; Family of— Trapping 

 Badgers — Anecdotes— Escape of Badger — Anecdotes— Strength of— Cruelty to. 



Amongst the aboriginal inhabitants of our wilder districts, who 

 are likely to be soon extirpated, we may reckon that ancient, 

 peaceable, and respectable quadruped, the badger ; ^ of an ancient 

 family he certainly is — the fossil remains which have been 

 found prove his race to have been co-existent with that of the 

 mammoths and megatheriums which once wandered over our 

 islands. Though the elk^ and beaver have long since ceased 



' Not uncommon in wooded parts of Morayshire ; it destroys the nests of wild ducks, 

 partridges, etc., sometimes catching the old bird on her eggs and eating her. In the 

 winter they turn up the ground in the turnip-fields after the manner of a pig, travelling 

 fer from their holes for this purpose. — C. St. J. 



' Megaceros Hibernicus. Remarkable from the fact that it is the sole survivor from 

 the Pleistocene into the Prehistoric Age which has since become extinct, and also from 

 having existed in vast numbers in Ireland, while its bones are rarely found in Britain. It 

 has, however, been discovered in the marl below the peat in the parish of Maybole, Ayr- 

 shire, — Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, 1880, p. 257, S. 



