September, 1943 Monr: 
in 1939, the writer collected one of this 
very small species dead on the highway as 
far south as Henkel in the southeast corner 
of Lee County. 
BADGER 
Distribution. — Until badgers were 
given year-around protection, these ani- 
mals were commonly caught by trappers 
in a group of counties in northern IIli- 
nois, most of them in the five counties in 
the northwestern part of the state that 
are heavily stippled on the distribution 
map, fig. 16. The number was usually be- 
tween 5 and 15 annually in each of these 
counties. Moderate numbers were caught 
in those counties that are lightly stippled 
on the map, all of them close to the heavily 
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O ISOLATED RECORD 
Fig. 16—Distribution of badgers in Illinois 
as indicated by fur-takers’ monthly reports for 
the seasons of 1929-30, 1930-31 and 1934-35 
through 1936-37. Data from these seasons of 
monthly reports have been transferred to the 
map in such a way that the county having the 
largest average catch per fur-taker has the 
greatest density of dots; other counties are 
dotted proportionally. 
FURBEARER DISTRIBUTION AND INCOME 
525 
sped counties. ‘he code in force July 
1937, placed badgers on the protected 
ee ich no open season. Since that date 
the legal killing of badgers has been lim- 
ited to those animals destroying property. 
Circles show localities from which badg- 
ers have been reported occasionally, fig. 16. 
Most of these badgers were carried there 
as caged animals and finally liberated; 
others were pioneering far away from the 
main body of their present range. They 
do not occur regularly in the counties 
in which the circles are shown. 
Kennicott (1855) stated that badgers 
were formerly common in Cook County 
and were, when he wrote, still common 
farther south. Later he added (1859) 
that in Illinois badgers were once numer- 
ous at least as far south as the middle of 
the state and were seen 30 years before 
near the Kaskaskia River. At that time 
they still existed in De Kalb County, ac- 
cording to him. 
Brayton (1882) mentioned a badger 
taken in Kankakee County in 1857. Wood 
(1910) wrote that “reliable persons” re- 
ported they had seen a badger that had 
been killed a few miles north of Urbana 
in 1908. 
Cory (1912) believed that, at the time 
he wrote, badgers still occurred ‘“‘occasion- 
ally in the northern two-thirds of Illinois.” 
Gregory (1936) recorded specimens from 
Du Page and Lake counties. Necker & 
Hatfield (1941) recorded an additional 
specimen from Lake County and one from 
near Chicago. 
Joe B. Davidson, biologist of the U. S. 
Soil Conservation Service, reported a badg- 
er killed near Cambridge in Henry Coun- 
ty in 1940 and added that badgers were 
becoming more common than they had 
been 4 years previously. One was caught 
in Mercer County, not far west of Cam- 
bridge, in 1929, according to a note by 
a trapper. 
A badger caught in the southeast corner 
of Woodford County a few summers ago 
was taken to the zoological park in Bloom- 
ington, only to escape within a few days. 
Koestner (19412) reported a_ badger 
from Kankakee County 1 in 1939; the skull 
of this animal is in his collection. During 
1942, residents of Martinton, Iroquois 
County, reported badgers fairly common 
there. ‘Trappers reported to the writer 
that badgers were killed each year since 
