276 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



he has once acquired a certain experience in worldly matters, 

 few beasts show more address and cunning in keeping out of 

 scrapes. Though eaten in France, Germany, and other countries, 

 and pronounced to make excellent hams, we in Britain despise 

 him as food, though I see no reason why he should not be 

 quite as good as any pork. 



The badger becomes immensely fat. Though not a great 

 eater, his quiet habits and his being a great sleeper prevent his 

 being lean. 



The immense muscular power that he has in his chest and 

 legs enables him to dig with great rapidity, while his powerful 

 jaws (powerful, indeed, beyond any other animal of his size) 

 enable him to tear away any obstacle in the shape of roots, etc., 

 that he meets with. He can also stand with perfect impunity 

 a blow on his forehead which would split the frontal bone of 

 an ox. This is owing to its great thickness, and also to the 

 extra protection of a strong ridge or keel which runs down the 

 middle of his head. A comparatively slight blow on the back 

 of his head kills him. In his natural state he is more than a 

 match for any animal that would be inclined to molest him, and 

 can generally keep at bay any dog small enough to enter his 

 hole. Fighting at advantage from behind some stone or root, 

 he gives the most fearful bites and scratches, while the dog has 

 nothing within his reach to attack save the badger's formidable 

 array of teeth and claws. 



Though nearly extinct as one of th.efer(B naturce of England, 

 the extensive woods and tracts of rocks in the north of Scotland 

 will, I hope, prevent the badger's becoming, like the beaver and 

 other animals, wholly a creature of history, and existing only in 

 record. Much should I regret that this respectable representa- 

 tive of so ancient a family, the comrade of mammoths and 

 other wonders of the antediluvian world, should become 

 quite extirpated. Living, too, in remote and uncultivated 

 districts, he very seldom commits any depredations deserving 

 of death or persecution, but subsists on the wild succulent 

 grasses and roots, and the snails and reptiles which he finds 

 in the jorest glades, or, on rare occasions, makes capture of 

 young game or wounded rabbits or hares, but I do not believe 

 that he does or can hunt down any game that wduld not 

 otherwise fall a prey to crow or weasel, or which has the full 



