MAMMALIA 45 



how the animal had come into that neighbourhood there was 

 not the slightest evidence to show. 1 A dog Badger was caught 

 on Whitbarrow in 1872, and another Badger of 19 lbs. weight 

 was caught in a trap at the Heads Lyth in May 1874. 2 During 

 the summer of 1885 a Badger took up its quarters among the 

 rocks above Gowbarrow, and this was possibly the animal killed 

 by the Blencathra Hounds in the vale of Naddle, St. John's, 

 Keswick, in the following year. 3 A Badger killed on Lazonby 

 Fell, and two others which were obtained near Edenhall, had, 

 as I understand, been intentionally introduced by a private 

 landowner with the laudable intention of restoring the breed. 

 Mr. F. P. Johnson believes that a similar experiment has 

 actually succeeded, and that a few Badgers are now permanently 

 established near Castlesteads ; but they are colonists, not abori- 

 ginal Badgers. Clements of Tebay stuffed a large Badger which 

 was killed near Tebay in 1889. Tebay is quite the country 

 for Badgers, but I have no doubt that this and all the Badgers 

 killed in Lakeland during the last forty years had escaped from 

 confinement. This Yiew is that held by all the older men whose 

 opinion is worth anything : indeed, I am not aware that any one 

 would dispute it. A regular trade in live Badgers is carried on 

 through a London paper. These animals often escape from con- 

 finement, and the fact that, so far as I know, all the recently 

 taken Badgers have been dogs, except one of the Edenhall speci- 

 mens, is quite in favour of their having escaped from those who 

 kept them for ' baiting.' Of course modern ' baiting' very rarely 

 crops up, but so do the Badgers. As recently as the year 1889, 

 my friend Mr. Bailey was asked to assist in capturing ' a strange 

 wild beast,' which had gone to earth in a garden at Cummersdale. 

 On repairing to the spot he found that a Badger had strayed 

 thither, having escaped from the garden of a Carlisle gentleman 

 who liked to keep a Badger among other pets. None of the 

 villagers ' ever seed sic a thing afore.' 



1 Zoologist, 1867, p. 822. 



2 Kendal Courier, May 13, 1874. 



3 West Cumberland Times, May 8th, 1886. 



