90 



VERTEBRATES. 



the bottom ; its 1 jad like that of a fox, but its ears are round and 

 shorter ; its eyes are large, of a yellowish green, and over them 



there is a black and transverse 

 stripe ; its snout is sharp ; its tail 

 is thick, but tapering towards a 

 point, and marked alternavely from 

 one end to the other with black 

 and white and brownish rings, and 

 is at least as long as the body ; its 

 fore legs are much shorter than 

 the hind ones, and both are armed 

 with five strong, sharp claws. This 

 animal, while eating, usually supports itself on its hind legs, and 

 uses its paws to hold its food, and it can open an oyster with the 

 utmost dexterity. Poultry are very favorite objects of its attack, 

 and it is said to be as destructive in a farm-yard as any fox, for it 

 only devours the heads of the murdered fowl. Like the fox, it 

 prowls by night. If water be near, it generally dips its food into 

 it. By its pointed claws it is enabled to climb trees with great 

 facility. It runs up the trunk ^ith the same swiftness that it 

 moves over the plain, and frolics about to the . extremity of the 

 branches with great security and ease : on the ground, indeed, it 

 rather bounds than runs, and its motions, though singularly oblique, 

 are yet always' quick and expeditious. 



The Badqer This harmless and much-injured animal 



(which is often subjected to such ill treatment that the term " bad- 

 gering" a person is used to express irritating him in every possible 

 way) is found throughout Europe and Asia. It is not now very 

 common in England, but is frequently found in Scotland and Ireland. 

 The Badger lives at the bottom of deep burrows which it excavates, 

 and in which it passes all the day, sleeping on a very comfortable bed 

 of hay and grass. When the evening approaches it seeks its food, 

 Tonsisting of roots, fruit, insects, and sometimes young rabbits. I* 

 is also said to attack the wild bee, and boldly to devour the honey 

 and combs ; its thick hair and skin rendering it utterly regardless 



