COJIMON BADGER. 
9 
COINIMON BADGrEK. Meles taxus (Boddaert). 
“ Brock.” 
Kesident and generally distributed ; apparently more common than formerly, 
for, writing of this animal, 1840-50, Harley appears to have found it rare. He 
wrote : — “ Formerly well distributed over the county, abounding in most large 
woods, especially those verging on the Forest of Charnwood. The woods of 
Gopsall and Oakley also bore marks of its retreat, even till within a very recent 
date. Used also to occur at IMere Hill Wood, near Loughborough. Not common.” 
His opinion as to its scarcity is shared in up to the present by most observers, 
but probably the animal is more common than generally supposed, owing to its 
retiring, nocturnal habits. The IMuseum possessed two specimens marked 
“ Leicestershire,” presumably those recorded in the Donation-book, one as having 
been presented by Sir A. S. Hazlerigg, Bart., on 22nd Aug., 1849, and the other 
shot at Keythorpe Hall, and presented by Lord Berners on 2nd April, 1860. The 
Eev. Andrew Matthews, M.A., Rector of Gumley, forwarded a half-grown living 
specimen — a male — to the Aluseum on 28th June, 1884. It was taken alive by a 
farm servant in the parish, who found it asleep, and cleverly contrived to get its 
neck between the prongs of a fork, pinning it to the ground whilst he tied its 
legs together, when he carried it home in triumph. This incident was mentioned 
in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1884, p. 271. Mr. H. S. Davenport wrote, in 1885; — 
“ Badgers are bred in Owston Wood ; Ram’s Head, at Keythorpe ; and Sir F. Fowke’s 
spinneys at Tilton-on- the-Hill, most years.” The late Mr. R. Widdowson wrote, 
in 1885 : — “ A great many instances of Badgers being killed within a few miles of 
us within the last year or two : have had two from Hoby. A friend residing at 
Eaton, near Waltham-on-the- Wolds, had, about four months ago, three within a 
week; two were young.” Mr. W. Ingram, writing in 1885, says: — “Badgers 
breed in our woods, but are rarely found away from their earths. I have 
known of but two instances of Badgers being found above ground by the Fox- 
hounds and killed. Keepers tell me that they occasionally see a family of Badgers 
returning to their lair, trotting in a line behind a leader just before daybreak.” 
IMr. Jno. Hunt informed me, in 1885, that Badgers formerly bred, or were 
found, at Scraptoft, and Mr. J. A. Gill afterwards corroborated this by telling me 
that, twenty or more years ago. Badgers bred in the “Hall Gardens,” Scraptoft, and 
that he remembered two being caught one moonlight night by men posted in 
yew-trees over their burrows. The Badgers having been watched out, their holes 
were “ bagged,” the animals being afterwards driven out of the adjacent spinneys 
into these traps. 
Col. F. Palmer writes me that there is generally one laid up in Owston Wood, 
or in the plantation near Launde, and that a young one, dug out about 1886, is 
now mounted, and in his possession. A male Badger was presented to the Museum 
■on 18th June, 1886, by Mr. C. E. Bassett, of Ullesthorpe, who wrote me : — “The 
