30 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURFFUL. 



down again before hunting commences. Having lived in a 

 hunting district much of our Hfe, and within easy walk 

 of a town, we have no hesitation in saying that the damage 

 done by hounds occasionally crossing a parish is as nothing 

 compared with the injury inflicted to live stock, crops, and 

 fences by poachers, bird-nesters, plover-egg seekers, wool 

 and watercress gatherers, mushroom seekers, herb and wild- 

 flower root collectors, gleaners, blackberry gatherers and 

 nutters, and all that class of nondescript town slink-abouts 

 who will do anything rather than an honest day's work. 



THE BADGER {.Veles taxus). 

 The badger is the only representative of the Plantigrades 

 (that is, animals walking on the soles of their feet) which 

 is now found in Great Britain. He is not a ver}- distant 

 relative of the bears [Ursidce)^ and exhibits also close 

 zoological affinities to the weasel tribe [MusteJidce), He 

 is a gentleman of very ancient descent, and was co-existent 

 in these regions with the mammoth, elk, and beaver, and 

 other animals long since extinct, yet still survives all the 

 changes and vicissitudes of time and place in spite of his 

 most unjust and cruel persecutions by man. That he has 

 succeeded in holding his own is due to his retiring habits, 

 seldom being seen outside his burrow in the daytime. In 

 fact, we are disposed to think that he is not so rare as is 

 generally supposed, and we have sometimes found his un- 

 mistakable tracks in places where we little expected to 

 see them — a long foot with five toes parallel to each other, 

 and the sharp nail-prints an inch or two in advance. 

 Compared with the fox, the badger is a dull, lazy beast, 

 and invariably very fat. His habits are wholly nocturnal, 

 issuing out of his burrow after dusk and returning before 

 dawn. Keepers who are out very early have seen them 

 returning to their retreats, following each other in direct 

 line. The earth of a badger is often a big affair, a regular 

 fortress, four to five feet deep, and with many twists and 



