FRIENDS OR FOES? 



to be good, and the bear and the badger are alike in 

 the matter of feeding ; in a great degree also in their 

 habits. 



I know him best in his home at the foot of one of 

 the South Down hills. There is a long strip of 

 coarse grass and moss, a quarter of a mile wide 

 and more than a mile in length, a valley between 

 two hills that are heavily timbered with oak and 

 ash. Over this belt of mossy grass the purple 

 emperor, prince of British butterflies, floats and 

 dashes as he crosses from the topmost twigs of one 

 belt of oaks to another. Here, too, the emperor moth 

 is found, and here the- badger has his abiding-place. 



When the harvest moon floods the valley with 

 light, he will leave his home and wander over this 

 green strip which had once been broken up by the 

 plough, but to no purpose, and so had become wild 

 again. Here wild-flowers cover the surface as their 

 time comes round. It is a perfect paradise for wild 

 creatures. The humble-bees and moss-bees make 

 their homes in the mossy surface — a rare treat for 

 our old friend in his grey, black and white coat, who 

 scratches them out with his digging-claws, or roots 

 them up with his nose like a pig. No matter 



