86 THE BADGER. 
making violent efforts to disengage itself; on earth-worms (lumbrici) being 
brought, it ate voraciously ; holding one extremity of a worm with its claws, 
its teeth were employed in tearing the other. Having consumed about ten or 
twelve, it became drowsy, and making a small groove in the earth, in which 
it placed its snout, it composed itself deliberately, and was soon sound asleep.” 
The colour of the Teledu is a blackish brown, with the exception of the 
fur upon the top of the head, a stripe along the back, and the tip of the 
short tail, which is a yellowish-white. The under surface of the body is of a 
lighter hue. The fur is long and of a silken texture at the base, and closely 
set together, so as to afford to the animal the warm covering which is needed 
in the elevated spots where it dwells. The hair is especially long on the 
sides of the neck, and curls slightly upwards and backwards, and on the 
top of the head there is a small transverse crest. The feet are large, and the 
claws of the fore-limbs are nearly twice as long as those of the hinder paws. 
In the whole aspect of the Teledu there is a great resemblance to the 
badger, and, indeed, the animal looks very like a miniature badger, of rather 
eccentric colours. 
ALTHOUGH one of the most quiet and inoffensive of our indigenous animals, 
the BADGER has been subjected to such cruel persecutions as could not be 
justified even if tne creature were as destructive and noisome as it is harm- 
less or innocuous. For the purposes of so-called “sport,” the Badger was 
captured and put into a cage ready to be tormented at the cruel will of every 
ruffian who might choose to risk his dog against the sharp teeth of the 
captive animal. 
Being naturally as harmless an animal as can be imagined, it is a terrible 
antagonist when provoked to use the means of defence with which it is so 
well provided. Not only are the teeth long and sharp, but the jaws are so 
formed that when the animal closes 
its mouth the jaws “lock” together 
by a peculiar structure of their junc- 
tion with the skull, and retain their 
hold without any need of any special 
effort on the part of the animal. 
Unlike the generality of the weasel 
tribe, the Badger is slow and clumsy 
in its actions, and rolls along so awk- 
wardly in its gait that it may easily 
be mistaken for a young pig in the 
dark of the evening, at which time it 
first issues from its burrow. The dig- 
ging capacities of the Badger are very 
great, the animal being able to sink 
itself into the ground with marvellous 
rapidity. For this power the Badger 
is indebted to the long curved claws 
with which the fore-feet are armed, 
and to the great development of the muscles that work the fore-limbs.. 
In its burrow the female Badger makes her nest and rears her young, 
which are generally three or four in number. 
The food of the Badger is of a mixed character, being partly vegetable and 
partly animal. Snails and worms are greedily devoured by this creature, 
and the wild bees, wasps, and other fossorial Hymenoptera find a most 
destructive foe in the Badger, which scrapes away the protecting earth and 
devours honey, cells, and grubs together, without being deterred from its 
meal by the stings of the angry bees, 
BADGER.—(A/eles Taxus). 
