24 



THE NATURALIST. 



enabled to follow, as truly as tlie finest nosed setter or spring pointer, tlie 

 windings of a pursued animal with unerring accuracy and precision. TMs 

 provision in h.is natural economy greatly assists liim in discovering tte hidden 

 treasures of grub and pupa to be found underneath the surface of the earth, 

 and while removing the soil for this purpose he is seen frequently to desist 

 from his labours that he may the better and more certainly tell their where- 

 abouts by the use of his olfactory organs. The wondrous muscular power 

 of his fore limbs in conjunction with his long and powerful hard claws, con- 

 stitutes him an adroit and skilful excavator, so that he can in an incredibly 

 short time sink himself several feet deep into a sandy so'il ; hence, the con- 

 struction of a burrow in such a place for the reception of their young, is 

 comparatively the work of a very short period. Their burrows are formed 

 with no little ingenuity and skill, and always with an eye to the future 

 comforts of the embryo family ; having numerous receptacles branching off 

 at right angles to the main trunk, or passage, wherein are to be deposited the 

 remains of rejected and offensive substances, which they usually cover over 

 with earth as they are placed in them, thus keeping the family domicile in a 

 cleanly and healtliful condition. It has been said that the badger is a non- 

 instinctive and stupid animal, but were there nothing else to refute such an 

 opinion, than the foregoing illustration of his forethought and solicitude it 

 is I think quite sufficient to place him in a rank inferior to none of his con- 

 geners ; and even to few other animals for sagacity and reasoning powers. 

 During the winter months Avhen piercing Borean blasts flit through the 

 leafless trees of his forest home, he retires to liis burrow to hybernate, but, 

 nnhke many other hybernating mammalia, he never lays up a store of reserved 

 food to minister to the calls of nature, and in consequence of this, when the 

 genial warmth of spring arouses him from his somnolent condition, or partial 

 suspension of nature, to resume an active existence, he is seen to be the very 

 antithesis in bulk of what he was in the preceeding autumn. In a few 

 weeks, however, he recruits his strength, and becomes rotund, fat and robust, 

 Late in the spring the female brings forth her young, of four or five in 

 number, for which purpose she usually makes her nest apart from her regular 

 burrow. The badger is easily tamed and speedily forms an attachment to it, 

 keeper — I have seen an adult, subjected only to a few days confinement, so 

 remarkably quiet, that it could be handled with impunity ; and even evinced 

 in this early stage of its domesticity, some traits of affection for the person 

 who fed it. He will never rebel without great provocation, but when once 

 aroused to exert his energies in seK defence, he becomes a most inveterate 



