GESTATION OF THE BADGER, 443 



but that I had better see to them in the morning. On doing 

 so one cub was found dead, and the other one stone-cold and 

 evidently deserted. When a suckling animal once gets stone- 

 cold it is generally past all aid, and, in spite of my best endea- 

 vours, the luckless youngster died early in the ensuing night. 

 As it was quite plump and heavy, the mother's desertion must 

 have been a sudden inspiration, and not the result of a gradual 

 failure of her milk. 



It may have been merely a coincidence having no bearing 

 whatever on the question of gestation, but it struck me that the 

 fact of these two Badgers deserting (and in the one case eating) 

 their offspring when some few weeks old was a point of import- 

 ance in investigating their domestic economy. 



My .Badger had been a most assiduous mother — in fact, the 

 most so that I ever met with, for she never left the box in which 

 the young were born by night or day, and we had even to put her 

 food into the box, for if placed even immediately outside it 

 remained untouched. The motive must have been a very power- 

 ful one which suddenly induced her to act in a precisely con- 

 trary manner. 



The only likely explanation that occurs to one is that the 

 Badgers came in season about five weeks after the birth of the 

 cubs, and, no male being able to get to them (I had shut away 

 the male immediately on the birth of the cubs), their excitement 

 and distress became so great as to cause them to forget the 

 youngsters, which until then had been the subject of their 

 tenderest solicitude. 



On the other hand, my male Badger was observed trying to 

 pair on the evenings of July 24th and Aug. 19th last ; and the 

 pair were heard growling in a quite unusual manner on the 

 evening of the 31st of that month, and grunting and squeaking 

 on that of Sept. 7th. 



2 m 2 



