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diff --git a/36830-h/36830-h.htm b/36830-h/36830-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..20155fc --- /dev/null +++ b/36830-h/36830-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2655 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Badger, by Alfred E. Pease + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +ins { + text-decoration: none; + border-bottom: 1px dotted #dcdcdc; +} + + +em {font-style: italic;} + +strong {font-weight: bold;} + +hr { margin: 5em auto 3em auto; + height: 0px; + border-width: 1px 0 0 0; + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + width: 500px; + clear: both; +} + +hr.hr2 {width: 100%; margin: 5em auto 5em auto;} +hr.hr3 {width: 200px; margin: 3em auto 3em auto;} +hr.hr4 {width: 200px; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + border-collapse: collapse; +} + +.pagenum {/* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /*visibility: hidden;*/ + position: absolute; + right: 1%; + font-size: 10px; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + font-style: normal; + letter-spacing: normal; + text-indent: 0em; + text-align: right; + color: #999999; + background-color: #ffffff; +} /* page numbers */ + +blockquote { + margin: 2em 4em; +} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.noi {text-indent: 0em;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: 5em auto 3em auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + + + +.tp {margin: 5em auto 5em auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} +.title {font-size: 2.8em;} +.author {font-size: 1.6em;} +.books {font-size: .8em;} +.illus {font-size: 1.3em;} +.pub1 {font-size: 1.5em;} +.pub2 {font-size: 1.1em;} +.block {margin: auto; width: 30em;} + +#box { + border: 1px solid #000; + padding: 0 1em 0 1em; + margin: auto; + width: 22em; +} + +#box2 { + margin: 5em auto 5em auto; + width: 500px; + border: 1px solid #4d6737; + clear: left; + padding: .5em 1em .5em 1em; +} + +#box5 { + margin: auto; width: 600px; +} + +.fltleft { + float: left; +} + +.fltright { + float: right; +} + +.clear { + clear: both; +} + +.nt { + margin-top: 0em; +} + +.nb { + margin-bottom: 0em; +} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Badger, by Alfred E. Pease + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Badger + A Monograph + +Author: Alfred E. Pease + +Release Date: July 24, 2011 [EBook #36830] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BADGER *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<hr /> + + +<h1>THE BADGER</h1> + + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="600" height="428" alt="Frontispiece" +title="" /> + +<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft smcap">Badger.</span> +<span class="fltright">[<i>Frontispiece.</i></span></p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><span class="title">THE BADGER</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="sub"><i>A MONOGRAPH</i></span><br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +<span class="by">BY</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="author">ALFRED E. PEASE, M.P.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="books">AUTHOR OF</span><br /> +"THE CLEVELAND HOUNDS AS A TRENCHER-FED PACK,"<br /> +"HORSE BREEDING FOR FARMERS," ETC.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 120px;"> +<img src="images/logo.jpg" width="120" height="117" alt="Logo" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center"><span class="pub2">LONDON</span><br /> +<span class="pub1 smcap">LAWRENCE AND BULLEN, Ltd.</span><br /> +<span class="pub2">16, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.</span><br /> +<span class="pub2">1898</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="rights"><i>All rights reserved</i></span></p> + + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,<br /> +London & Bungay.</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="block"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hunting it is the noblest exercise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Makes men laborious, active, wise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brings health and doth the spirits delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It helps the hearing and the sight:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It teacheth arts that never slip<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The memory—good horsemanship,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Search, sharpness, courage, and defence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chaseth all ill-habits thence."—<span class="smcap">Ben Jonson.</span><br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span> +THE BADGER</h2> + + + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<h2><a name="part_i" id="part_i"></a>PART I</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">I do</span> not know of the existence of any monograph on the Badger, ancient +or modern, in English or any other language. Nor have I been able to +find any adequate description in any work on natural history or British +fauna of this the largest, and by no means the least interesting, of the +real wild animals that still exist in England and Wales. So that, +however unfitted I may be to write a scientific treatise on the last of +the bear tribe that we have yet with us, I have ventured to think that +my own observations and researches, with experiences of the chase of +this troglodyte, may be of interest to lovers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> of the animal world, and +to not a few sportsmen.</p> + +<p>From my boyhood all wild animals have had for me an intense fascination, +and though in later years my hunting-grounds have been for the most part +in other countries and continents, and among larger game, I doubt if any +of the beasts whose acquaintance I have thus made has been a source of +greater interest to me than the badger. The charm of an animal for man, +where the sporting is the master instinct, appears to be measured by his +capacity to elude observation and defy pursuit; and the badger, judged +by this test, is a charming creature. I may be mistaken, but to me it +appears that the chase in its widest sense is one of the best schools +for studying nature. Such knowledge as I have gained of the badger has +been due to the indulgence of this "brutal" instinct, as it is profanely +called, and from quiet observation. If the reader will spare a little +time, I will show him the manner in which my observations are made, but +I warn him that there is nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> scientific about them. I have no +microscope and no dissecting-room.</p> + +<p>It is June. A hot summer's day is dying, and the sun is sinking through +soft clouds of glory behind the pine woods on the hill. A thousand birds +in vale and woodland are singing with an ecstasy and sweetness that seem +tenderly conscious that the hours of song are numbered—that the days +are coming when darkness or dawn will steal over the land in silence, +unheralded as it is to-day by their wild sweet notes. We wander across +the pasture by the cattle, and along the side of the ripening meadow +towards the wooded bank under the edge of the moor, where the badger has +his home. As we near the covert, a few rabbits that have ventured far +out into the field frisk up the hill, alarming their less adventurous +companions, and all make for the shelter of the wood, displaying a +hundred little cotton tails.</p> + +<p>As the gate into the plantation opens a few wood-pigeons stop their +cooing and fly swiftly up and out of the trees with a clean cutting +slap-slap of their wings to some other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> solitude safer from intrusion. +Once in the shadow of the firs, softly treading we come up-wind to the +badger "set." Here we choose a place among the larch stems which gives +us a good view of the most-used entrances to the earth, some fifteen +yards from the nearest hole. We turn up our coat-collars, draw our caps +over our faces, and settle ourselves in such positions as will least try +our patience and muscles during the hour in which we must remain +immovable. In idea nothing could be more delightful than to sit in the +deepening twilight of a summer's evening, with a soft breath of air +stirring the feathery larch tops against the sky above, the ground +carpeted with the vivid green of the opening bracken, surrounded by the +music of cooing wood-pigeons, the full notes of blackbird and thrush, +and listening to the pleasant sounds carried on the breeze from the +distant farms.</p> + +<p>Delightful as is the enjoyment of the confidences of Nature in her most +hidden solitudes, the pleasure has its price, and the angler on a +summer's eve can sympathize<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> with the man who sits over a badger earth. +But he at least can protect himself to some extent against the +exasperating attacks of midges in myriads, and vent his feelings aloud, +and flog the waters, whilst the latter must stoically endure the torture +and the plague. The most he can do is occasionally to draw his hand from +his pocket, and slowly move it to his face and massacre the settlers on +his nose, his ears, his neck, and carefully move it again into its +hiding-place. In spite of the torment, however, he may enjoy the sights +and sounds, known to but few, that these witching hours alone can give. +The rabbits emerge within a yard of him, first the little ones, +unconscious of his eye, then the old ones sit up and, imitating his +immovability, watch him critically with their black beady eyes set, and +noses palpitating; after a while old paterfamilias gives his signal of +alarm or warning by a sharp pat, pat with his hind foot, telling all +round that there is something in his vicinity he does not know how to +account for. The cry of the startled blackbird warns that some other +enemy is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> on foot as he flies from the bur-tree to the thorn, and we see +an old fox moving through the young bracken with lowered head and brush, +starting off on his nightly raid. A belated squirrel throws himself from +the tree above, runs close by us on the ground, up the stem of a larch, +and is soon lost in the sea of green above. A numerous and dissipated +family of little crested wrens, which should have settled for the night +ere this, twitter with diminutive voices as they twist in and out and +hang on the boughs of the spruce in front of us.</p> + +<p>Gradually, as the daylight fades, one after another of the singers +becomes silent, the sounds of day are hushed, and a perfect silence +reigns in the twilight amidst the trees. Without any warning we are +conscious of the clean black-and-white face of an old badger over the +earthwork outside his hole, and presently he is all in view, sitting +with bowed fore-legs and his head turning on his lithe outstretched +neck, scenting the night air. There is nothing to excite his suspicion, +so he shambles to the nearest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> tree, puts up his fore-feet and rubs his +neck, smells round the well-known trunk, and having satisfied himself +that all is as usual, sits for awhile admiring the limited landscape +before him. He then shuffles a few yards from the earth, scratches the +soil here and there as if to keep his digging tools in order, and +returns to the bottom of the tree. Another pied face appears, and more +quickly than the first she trundles off to join her mate, and they +bounce along one after another over the earths, round the trees, down +one hole and out at another, and then rest awhile outside the earth they +first emerged from. Three more come forth, and go through very much the +same programme as the first, snorting and bumping along one after the +other and one against the other.</p> + +<p>Presently one takes off into the thickest covert. You can hear him +bumping along, sweeping through the bracken and crackling the dead wood. +Presently the others come past you, tumbling along so close that you +could hit them with your stick. Probably they take no notice, but if you +wink, wince,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> or move they will shamble back to the earth and watch you +for ten minutes. It is then a trial for your nerves. If you move you +have seen the last of them for the night, but if you succeed in being +perfectly still they will recover sufficient confidence to sally forth +again, but will take off quickly in different directions for their +night's ramble. Then at last we may raise our stiff limbs and turn our +steps through the dark woods, leaving the fox and badger to their +devices, and once more frightening the rabbits which flash past us as we +wade homewards through the grass heavy and wet with dew. We have made no +startling discovery on this our first night together by the badger +"set," but probably we have made a better acquaintance with badgers in +this hour than we could have gained in any museum of natural history, +with the assistance of the most erudite Fellow of the Zoological +Society.</p> + +<p>To understand and appreciate all sides of the badger's character you +must see him in war as well as at peace; and such knowledge has to be +purchased by great labour and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> bodily fatigue. In the name of sport, as +in the name of liberty, great crimes are often committed. There are +those who look upon hunting of all sorts as cruel and degrading, and +cannot understand the pleasures of a chase involving the distress of +pursuit or pain to any animal. I have a certain sympathy for such +sentiments, and yet, paradoxical as it may appear, my very love of +animals increases my passion for hunting them. Besides the longing to +come to close quarters with them, the desire to possess or to handle +them, there is the natural ambition to be even with them. There is an +unwritten code of honour in the field which, if followed, makes the +struggle of wits and strength, of skill and endurance, a fair one, and +one in which alone many a valuable lesson out of Nature's book can be +taught. To relieve any tender consciences amongst my readers I may here +declare, without wishing to reflect on brother sportsmen whose methods +are more Cromwellian, that when victorious in the war with a badger, +when, after many a hard-fought battle in his subterranean<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +fortress—when mine and counter-mine, tunnel, shaft, and trench have +driven him fighting to his last stand in his deepest and innermost +citadel, and he has been forced to capitulate—I have never abandoned +him to a victorious soldiery howling for blood, but have always given +him honourable terms. I have never willingly or wantonly killed a +badger; he has invariably become a pampered prisoner, or been +transported to some new home, where some one whom I had interested in +his species was prepared to give him protection, and a new start in +life. Among those who have given my badgers protection I may name Mr. +Edward North Buxton, who has done so much to maintain the natural beauty +of Epping Forest, and to protect wild life within its borders. I know of +several thriving colonies of badgers within the forest precincts +descended from my prisoners of war.</p> + +<p>I have kept many badgers in confinement, but never to "try" my dogs, and +all my terriers learnt their trade in legitimate fashion. Badger-baiting +I unreservedly condemn—it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> is as much a profanation of sport as +coursing bagged hares in enclosed grounds. There are degrees of +wickedness, and when a badger is placed in a properly-constructed +badger-box there are few terriers that would not be vanquished in the +encounter. The figure below illustrates the correct box.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig01.jpg" width="400" height="141" alt="Fig. 1." title="" /> +<span class="caption smcap">Fig. 1.</span> +</div> + +<p>One of the atrocious methods by which the badger was baited in the last +century is described and denounced in volume xii. of the <i>Sporting +Magazine</i>, 1788. "They dig a place in the earth about a yard long, so +that one end is four feet deep. At this end a strong stake is driven +down. Then the badger's tail is split, a chain put through it, and +fastened to the stake with such ability that the badger can come up to +the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> end of the place. The dogs are brought and set upon the poor +animal, who sometimes destroys several dogs before it is killed."</p> + +<p>Badger-baiting, it seems, was the price the race had to pay for its +existence, and with the happy disuse of a brutal sport the harmless +badger has been doomed to extinction. The only method by which any +British wild animal can be preserved from extinction in this age of what +is termed progress, is to hunt it. Who can doubt, that if fox-hunting +and otter-hunting were stopped to-day, both these creatures would be +extinct within the next few years? It may be a hard bargain to make with +them, but considering their own crimes of violence, and their +incompatibility with "civilization," it does not seem to be a too severe +condition to impose on the fox and the otter, that if they are permitted +to live they must at least submit to the risks and fortunes of the +chase. Not being able to do more than speculate on the intellectual and +nervous capacity of animals, we are apt to assign to them some measure +of human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> powers of thought and feeling. Undoubtedly they are physically +less sensitive, and we probably err when we ascribe to them more than a +slight ability to anticipate, or credit them with such sentiments as +anxiety, mental distress, and those thoughts and sensations that in the +main make pain intolerable. Those species that have long been associated +with man have, I think, a greater capacity for suffering. The +individuality of each domestic race has been developed; the difference +of temperament and character of each individual becomes more marked, and +more or less humanized, according to the influences by which it is +surrounded. There is a more uniform character and greater similarity of +temperament among wild animals, and the more refined the civilization +and the more cultivated the senses, the more sensitive will the whole +animal become. This may be seen in the most common of Nature's +operations. The wild beast produces its young with ease and without +pain. With woman, raised amidst the refinements of civilization, the +same operation is with every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> precaution and assistance sometimes a +dangerous, always an agonizing ordeal.</p> + +<p>No, the terms are not hard. Take the case of a fox, the most hunted of +animals. The ordinary lot of a fox compared with that of any other +creature, wild or domestic, or even with man himself, is not an +unenviable one. Unlike the domestic animals, he is not born into +servitude or to die in early life by the butcher's knife or axe. Happier +than man, he lives his life, whether longer or shorter, free from the +worries, cares, and the thousand ills which flesh is heir to. The fox's +life is free as air. Protected for the most part from the natural +consequences of his marauding disposition, fair play is given to him to +avoid the punishment he deserves by the exercise of that strategy, +activity, and endurance with which he is so abundantly endowed. Two or +three days in the three hundred and sixty-five he may have to exert +himself more or less to save his brush, or the end may come swiftly and +suddenly after a long run; but even so, are there not many of us who +would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> be glad to know that our death would come as swiftly and +painlessly to us as to the fox, who, flying for forty minutes before the +pack, confident, perhaps, to the last that he is a match for his +pursuers, is rolled over in his stride? The sportsman may pity the +sinking fox, with every desire to see the victory of the straining pack, +in the moment when, after gallantly standing up before hounds, a +straight-necked veteran finds he has shot his last bolt, and turns with +fire yet in his eye to meet death in its swiftest form.</p> + +<p>There is something strange in the mixture of pain with pleasure. My +little son comes out cub-hunting with me in the early morning of a +September day. He is the picture of delight, sitting on his pony among +the hounds, the effigy of enjoyment as he follows them with his and his +pony's head just above the high bracken, the incarnation of satisfaction +as he receives his first brush and is blooded. He is none the less a +little sportsman for sobbing himself to sleep at night with his brush +hugged under the bedclothes, because of the thought that the bright +little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> cubs he saw killed will never again run in and out of the wood +on the hillside as of yore. I look into his room the following day, and +find him in his night-shirt busy extracting the tail-bone from his +trophy, and he stops in his work only to ask when the hounds will be out +again.</p> + +<p>The power of enjoying hunting of any sort is no evidence of want of +tenderer feelings. It may be that the days of sport are numbered by the +exigencies of what is termed the progress of civilization; but whether +men's hearts will be braver, their bodies and minds healthier, or their +natures kindlier and happier for the change, only time may show. All +this is something in the nature of apology; but, excuse or none, +thousands are conscious that the nearest approach to pure unmixed +pleasure that they have known has been derived from the chase, where +cares are forgotten, pulses quickened, eyes brightened, and the mind +refreshed. About conscious or unconscious vicarious sacrifice with +regard to the badger I will not say more than this, that the baiting of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +an animal in confinement, even though he be but the scapegoat for a +thousand of his kind, is so repugnant to humanity, and so likely to +breed cruelty, that though I lament his imminent extinction I would say, +"perish <i>Meles taxus</i>" rather than let him pay this price for the +continuance of his race, and, whatever view he might have himself, I +would refuse him the option.</p> + +<p>The badger has made a wonderful struggle for existence, and may linger +on for many years yet in the more secluded corners of England and Wales +(in Scotland he is almost extinct), but he owes all to his own +mysterious silent ways, and nothing to man's mercy in the matter. The +intelligent and unprejudiced wearers of velveteen, who, with the tacit +consent of their masters, have by means of the steel trap, flag-trap, +and gun, exterminated and banished for ever the most interesting of our +animals and the most beautiful of our birds, have hitherto failed in +their ruthless attempt to rid earth and heaven of everything but furred +and feathered game, so far as the badger is concerned. In many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> English +counties, however, the badger has given in before ceaseless digging, +snaring, and shooting, and the silent covert where he had his earth, +where he dug and delved and made his wonderful subterranean stronghold, +knows him no more. He has gone with the polecat, the pine marten, the +wild cat, the harriers, the buzzards, and a host of the brightest and +loveliest of our birds. Guiltless of the crimes of his fellow-victims +against game, he was and is still ignorantly classed under that +all-embracing word of the keeper, "vermin." There are few who lament his +disappearance save perhaps the makers of shaving-brushes, and the old +people whose faith in the efficacy of "badger-grease" can no longer find +the opportunity of exercising the same. This faith is an old one. I read +in the <i>Sporting Magazine</i>, 1800, volume xvii.—"The flesh, blood, and +grease of the badger are very useful for oils, ointments, salves, and +powders, for shortness of breath, the cough of the lungs, for the stone, +sprained sinews, coll-achs, etc. The skin, being well dressed, is very +warm and comfortable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> for ancient people who are troubled with paralytic +disorders." Evidently a few badgers in the good old days supplied the +place of the country doctor. About the fancied or really mischievous +habits of the badger I shall have something to say later on.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +<a name="part_ii" id="part_ii"></a>PART II</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> badger (<i>Meles taxus</i>, or <i>Ursus meles</i>) is known under various +aliases, viz. the Brock (Danish <i>Broc</i>, Erse <i>Broc</i>, Welsh <i>Brock</i>), the +Pate, and the Grey. Of these the Brock is perhaps the commonest, and is +the name most used in the north of England. There is an expression +common in the north that would lead the ignorant to believe that a +badger perspires, or sweats, viz. "sweating like a brock." In Yorkshire +I often hear a man say, "Ah sweats like a brock," and the user of this +elegant metaphor innocently imagines he is perspiring like a badger. But +"brock" is the old north-country word for the insect known as +"cuckoo-spit" (<i>Aphrophora spumaria</i>), which covers itself in the larval +state with froth and foam (cf. Welsh <i>broch</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> foam)—<i>vide</i> Atkinson's +<i>Dictionary of the Cleveland Dialect</i>. In parts of Cornwall and Wales +the word "Grey" may be in use, but I myself have only come across it in +books, more especially old ones. Though able to boast these several +titles, there is but one species known in Europe, and in general +appearance he is the same animal, though varying locally in size and +shade of colour. He has been classed as belonging to the bear tribe, but +the badger is really a single species and a sub-genus in itself. The +dentition of a badger is half tuberculous and half carnivorous, and in +this respect approaches the martens.</p> + +<p>About few animals has there been more nonsense written in regard to +habits and anatomy, and for many of the popular notions concerning the +badger there is no foundation whatever. In the ancient books descriptive +of sport and wild animals we read that there were in England two kinds +of badger—the one as we know it, and the other a "pig-badger," with +cloven hoofs and other attributes of the porker. It is astonishing how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +these old authors drew upon their imagination, and where they found +suggestions for their errors. In this case it may be they were misled by +the custom, which still continues, of distinguishing between the dog and +bitch, or male and female badger, by using the terms boar and sow; or it +may be the idea dawned whilst they ate their rasher from a badger ham!</p> + +<p>There are altogether not more than five (or perhaps six) kinds of badger +known throughout the world, so far as I know.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Lydekker, whose authority I accept, enumerates four kinds +of badger— +<br /> +1. The American (<i>Taxidea americana</i>).<br /> +2. The Common (<i>Meles taxus</i>).<br /> +3. Malayan (<i>Mydaus meliceps</i>).<br /> +4. The Sand-badger (<i>Arctonyx collaris</i>).<br /> +</div> + +<p>1. The European badger, known over almost the whole of Europe and Asia. +2. A larger species, confined to the high steppes of Eastern Siberia. 3. +The North American mistonusk, or chocaratouch (<i>Meles labradorica</i> or +<i>hudsonius</i>). 4. The Mexican badger, found south of latitude 35 degrees. +5. The Japanese badger. 6. The Indian badger (<i>Meles indica</i>) might be +added perhaps, though it has a pig's snout, long legs, and long tail. +Its native name is bhalloo-soor, <i>i.e.</i> the bear pig.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>Nos. 3 and 4, the chocaratouch and Mexican, differ so distinctly from +the others in dentition, though in appearance similar to the European +species, that a new genus, Taxidea, has been established for their +reception.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> In Lower California there is a variety of badger which +differs from described forms by its dark colouration and broad nuchal +stripe. +</div> + +<p>Popular error, and old writers, describe the badger as having his legs +shorter on one side than the other, and the latter, with philosophical +ingenuity, have discovered therein a wonderful provision of nature; for, +says Nicholas Cox, "He hath very sharp Teeth, and therefore is accounted +a deep-biting beast; his back is broad, and his legs are longer on the +right side than the left, and therefore he runneth best when he gets on +the side of an Hill or a Cart roadway." The same author also +states—"Her manner <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>is to fight on her back, using thereby both her +Teeth and her Nails, and by blowing up her Skin after a strange and +wonderful manner she defendeth herself against any blow and teeth of +Dogs. Only a small stroke on her Nose will dispatch her presently. You +may thrash your heart weary on her back, which she values as a matter of +nothing." If such a provision in the matter of legs did exist, one can +realize the comfort of the uneven legs on a hill-side, but what gravels +us is the discomfort of the return journey! The rolling, shambling gait +that characterizes the badger is doubtless the origin of this absurd +theory, which might be equally applied to any other member of the bear +family. The European badger, as we find him in England, Wales, Scotland, +and Ireland, stands about ten to twelve inches from the ground, has a +long, stout body, with the belly near the earth. He has a coat so long +and dense, and legs so short, that he appears to travel very nearly +<i>ventre à terre</i>. The male is somewhat larger than the female, and +weighs more. The weight of a male is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> about 25 lbs., that of a female +about 22 lbs. When they are fat, or in grease in September, they will +scale more. Badgers have been known to weigh up to about 40 lbs.; the +largest I ever dug out and weighed was an old lean dog badger that +scaled over 35 lbs.</p> + +<p>The head of the badger is wedge-shaped in general conformation, the back +of the head large, the cheek-bones well sprung, and the muzzle fine and +long. The nose or snout is black in colour, long and full; the eyes +small, black, or black-blue; and the ears small, round, close-set, and +neat. The strength of a badger's legs is most remarkable, and for his +size (the animal only weighs from 19 lbs. to 35 lbs.) he possesses a +most wonderful combination of bone and muscle. The legs are very short +and the joints large; the feet, like the legs, are nearly black, and are +large and long. The badger is a plantigrade, that is, when travelling he +puts down the whole of his foot, including the heel, flat on the ground. +His fore-feet are larger, longer, and better equipped for digging than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +his hind, but all are armed with long, sharp claws, and it is prodigious +what he can effect with them. There is no mistaking his tracks—no +animal's footprint is in the least like his. His heel is large and wide; +this, and his four round, plump toes, leave an impression in sand, mud, +or snow that cannot be confounded with any other. If the mud is deep, or +there is snow on the ground, he also leaves the mark of his claws, but +as a rule these are not observable, as he puts his weight on the sole of +his foot—his tracks are usually almost in a line. The badger is cut out +for a miner. His wedge-shaped head is capable of forcing a passage +through sand and soft strata, whilst his armour-tipped diggers are +worked by machinery that rivals in power the steam navvy; and whilst his +fore-feet are going like an engine, throwing stones, bits of rock, sand, +clay, and all that he comes in contact with between his fore-legs (which +are set wide apart, leaving plenty of room under the chest), his +powerful hams are working his hind-legs and feet like little demons, +throwing back all that the fore-feet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> throw under his belly. And this is +not all. His powerful jaw and teeth will cut, break, and tear all roots +that obstruct his passage onwards, and it is most entertaining to see +him going through earth, shale, and stone with the rapidity and +sustained energy of a machine. No one who has not seen it would credit +what one of these animals can do. I have often been defeated by their +being able to penetrate more quickly than even a gang of men with +pick-axe, spade, shovels, and crowbar could follow. And it is safe to +say that as long as a terrier is not up to the badger, the badger is not +only advancing quicker than the men (if his earth is on a hill-side), +but has also, in nine cases out of ten, barricaded his retreat and +scored a victory. I have known a badger, left for awhile by the terrier, +bore his way straight up out to daylight and escape. The badger is +covered with a thick, long-haired coat, which with a loose skin of +extraordinary density and toughness forms a complete and effective +armour. The hair on his head is short and smooth, and the sharp, clean +black-and-white markings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> of his head give a very pretty and effective +appearance to it. The general appearance in colour of a badger is a sort +of silvery-grey, turning to black on the throat, breast, belly, and +legs. Inverting the usual colouring of other animals, which is generally +dark on the back, with lighter colouring on the belly and under the arms +and thighs, the badger is lighter on the back and black underneath. Not +only is this colouring peculiar to the badger, but his hair is unlike +that of any other creature known to me, being light at the root and +darker above.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig02.jpg" width="600" height="125" alt="Fig. 2." title="" /> +<span class="caption smcap">Fig. 2.</span> +</div> + +<p>The colour of a badger alters with age. The little cubs, till they are +seven or eight months old, are a clean, bright, light silvery-grey; they +then become yellower in their coats, a colour which they keep sometimes +permanently, but which they generally change<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> after two years for a suit +of darker, purer grey. The badger's tail is about five inches long, +covered with long, coarse, lighter-coloured hair than that on his body, +and is of a yellowish-brown colour.</p> + +<p>The badger has another peculiar distinction that is somewhat mysterious, +viz. a pouch, the vent of which is close under the root of the tail, and +contains an oily fœtid matter which he has the power of emitting. +Different uses have been ascribed to this provision, such as that which +ferrets and polecats have. I have never noticed a badger use it as has +been suggested, as a mode of defence or annoyance, and am sure that this +is not its purpose. But there is no doubt the badger sucks and licks +this substance, whether by way of taking a tonic, a cooling draught, a +stimulant, or other physic I cannot say. I am, however, inclined to +believe, that from this source he is able to maintain his health and +support life during those periods of seclusion and total retirement in +his "earth" which have led naturalists to describe him as a hibernating +animal.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +In this theory I am strengthened by a French author, Edmond Le Masson, +who writes—"The badger does not always give evidence of his presence in +his woody retreat.... There, should one go to see him, he may, from pure +idleness, remain shut up, it being easy for him to support himself +during the longest period of retirement by licking the secretion which +oozes from the pouch under his tail." The author goes on to give an +account which was sent to the French papers by M. Récopé, Garde Général +at Marly-le-Roi, of a badger that was shut in a culvert without any food +whatever for forty-five days, walled in on every side, and where no tree +root could penetrate. A gamekeeper, a noted trapper, had blocked the +exit, and tried in every way he could devise to trap him, from February +18, 1853, to April 4, and when at last he succumbed to a ruse of the +keeper's he was quite lively, and weighed nearly 19 lbs. It appears that +however carefully his traps were set in the mouth of the exit, the +badger came every night and rolled on them and struck them, as they will +do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> when they suspect any human infernal machine. That he will remain +for a week or two at a time without issuing from his "earth" is certain, +but the most casual observer will see badger tracks in the snow in the +severest weather, and I have never been able to find that there were no +tracks in the snow issuing from the "earths" in winter for more than a +week or two at a time. The badger is less active, eats less, goes fewer +and shorter journeys in winter, and has a hibernating tendency; but the +idea that the British species shuts himself up and takes to his bed +through the winter months, and never comes forth till spring, is a +fallacy.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig03.jpg" width="400" height="211" alt="Fig. 3. Lower Jaw of Badger." title="" /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 3.</span> Lower Jaw of Badger.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig04.jpg" width="400" height="207" alt="Fig. 4. Dovetailed Jaws." title="" /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 4.</span> Dovetailed Jaws.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 286px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig05.jpg" width="286" height="450" alt="Fig. 5. Skull of Badger—front view." title="" /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 5.</span> Skull of Badger—front view.</span> +</div> + +<p>Having attempted a slight description of the badger as far as his +exterior is concerned, I shall leave to "Dryasdust" the description and +nomenclature of the badger's interior economy, as well as the +enumeration, weights, and measurements of his bones and muscles. He +possesses, however, one or two structural peculiarities that deserve a +little attention. There is much similarity in the general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> conformation +of the badger's and bear's skull, but the protecting ridge on the head +is absent in the bear. What gives to the badger's jaw its proverbial and +terrific force? To witness its work is to know that its power of biting, +crushing, and holding must be the result of some peculiarly strong +mechanical as well as muscular construction. The examination of the +skull helps in the solution of the mystery. The conformation of the jaw +is strong, and the muscles attached to it powerful; but besides this he +has two distinguishing structural additions that give his jaws, +furnished with his formidable teeth, the strength and retentive power of +an iron vice. The first is that his lower jaws are locked into sockets +in the skull, and are thereby made—unlike those of all other animals I +know of—impossible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> of dislocation.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> His head or skull, when stripped +of flesh and bare, still retains the lower jaws in such a way that they +cannot be displaced without fracturing the massive bones of the head or +jaw. The teeth of a badger require respectful attention. There are +eighteen teeth in the lower and sixteen in the upper jaw, in all +thirty-four. The four big molars, two above and two below, are large and +strong, the upper being much the larger and wider ones, the lower being +longer and fitting within the upper, as do all the lower teeth. The four +canines are large, thick, round, long and formidable, and are his chief +weapons. The lower canines dovetail when the jaws close with the upper,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +but all the four points or ends turn outward and backward.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The curved ridges of bone on the skull by which the lower +jaw is held in its place by gripping the condyle are more or less well +developed in most of the weasel family. +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig06.jpg" width="400" height="220" alt="Fig. 6. Skull—side view." title="" /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 6.</span> Skull—side view.</span> +</div> + +<p>The second peculiarity arises from a high ridge of bone, standing +straight up and running from the base of the skull to between the ears, +giving a firm hold to the ligaments and tendons, and an additional +leverage and length, which are again rendered more effective by passing +over the high cheek-bones as over a pulley before reaching the jaws. +There is a saying that "a badger never leaves go till he makes his teeth +meet," and there is a foundation of truth in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> it. The length of time he +will hold on to the limb of an enemy is certainly fearful, and the way +in which his thick strong canines go through the bone. On one occasion, +in Wales, a keeper residing near the place I was staying at thought he +saw the badger's tail at the end of a badger-digging, and laid hold of +it to draw him. He had made a terrible mistake, and had got hold of a +hind-foot. The badger held him by the wrist for ten minutes with his arm +stretched up the hole; when he let go his hold the hand was hanging by a +few shreds, and had, of course, to be amputated. I have always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> drawn a +badger when possible by the tail, as the use of the tongs is sometimes +difficult, especially in certain holes and at great depths, and there is +a liability for the tongs to give way, and then the badger charges in +your face or through your legs. I have seen a badger's teeth break and +fly off in chips from iron tongs, a sight and sound that is not +pleasant. To one who knows how to do it, drawing by the tail is a +simple, quiet, and effective way of "taking the brock."</p> + +<p>A badger has the proverbial nine lives that John Chinaman attributes to +women and we to cats. You cannot kill a badger by a blow on the head, +the structure is so dense. His brain is so well protected by the ridges +of bone along his skull and over his eye-sockets, and by the strength +and projection of his cheek-bones, as to make him all but invulnerable +in that quarter. His skin is so thick and tough, and his coat so heavy +and coarse, that shot will scarcely penetrate it; but he has one place +as tender as a nigger's shins, and that is his nose, where, if he is +struck once, he is instantly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> dispatched. I was witness of a scene in +the hunting field with the Cleveland hounds during the mastership of the +late Mr. Henry Turner Newcomen, which, however disgusting, illustrated +the vitality of the badger. We thought we had run a fox to ground in a +drain. The terriers were sent for, one was put in to bolt him, but after +a quarter of an hour's attempt he came out, having given it up, with +severe marks of punishment. One that could be depended on was then +dispatched to ground, and digging operations commenced. As time went on +we thought from the sound that it could not be a fox, and presently +there was a charge down the drain, and a badger came bouncing and +floundering out among the crowd of bystanders, the terrier holding on to +him. The other terriers, barking furiously to join in the fray, excited +the hounds in an adjoining field; they broke out past the whips, and +nineteen couple were soon at the badger, who was entirely lost to view +in the struggling and worrying mass. But he was plying his jaws all the +time, as was evidenced by the howls<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> of pain from the wounded hounds as +they withdrew from this unaccustomed entertainment. The whips and others +did their best to flog the hounds off, but this was not accomplished for +at least ten minutes. After much bloodshed, and when the last hound had +been choked off, the badger showed neither scratch nor wound, and looked +as fresh as possible. Mr. Newcomen ordered a whip to despatch him and +end the tragedy. The whip clubbed a weighted hunting-stock, striking him +several smashing blows on the head, and left him apparently dead. A +farmer having asked if he might have him to stuff, put him in a sack and +carried him off. A few days later I met the farmer, Mr. R. Brunton, of +Marton, and he told me that when he got home the badger was as lively as +ever, so he put him on a collar and chain and fastened him to a kennel. +The day following he thought, from the appearance of the badger, that he +was hurt about the head, and with some difficulty examined him, and +found that the lower jaw was injured. He thereupon got a revolver and +fired a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> shot into his ear, and then he assured me the badger only shook +his head. He was so taken aback that for a moment or two he thought of +giving up the attempt to kill him, but firing a second ball into him +behind the shoulder he put an end at once to the poor brute's +sufferings.</p> + +<p>The badger, as I have said, is becoming very scarce in England, and is +decreasing in numbers in France and other countries as well. There are, +however, several English and Welsh counties where in woodlands he still +is to be found in considerable numbers, and some districts where they +are common enough. The badger is fairly plentiful in many parts of +Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Hants, and Gloucestershire, along the +Welsh border, and in Mid and South Wales. It is to be found also in +Sussex, Wilts, occasionally in Surrey and Kent, and here and there +through the Midland and home counties. It is becoming rare in the north +of England, but still lingers in the North Riding of Yorkshire, chiefly +in the districts of the hills and moors between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> Scarborough and York. +In Lincolnshire it is to be found in places; it is extinct in Durham, +and practically so in Northumberland, where within fifty years it was +common enough.</p> + +<p>A Northumberland gamekeeper of my father's has told me he knew it in the +Kyloe Craggs and the Howick Woods, and remembered his father taking him +to see their dog tried at a badger near Belford. In none of these places +are they to be found now. In my own district of Cleveland they were in +1874 all but extinct. I remember as a boy two were caught in our +neighbourhood, one in Kildale and one at Ayton; but in 1874 I had three +young badgers sent me from Cornwall, dug out by one of my uncles, and +these I turned out in my father's coverts, and secured for them the +keeper's protection. Since then they have, with a few later +introductions, held their own, and a few years ago I knew of nine badger +"sets" in the vicinity, and some five on our own ground; but I regret +that the hands of neighbours are against them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +In Scotland the badger is now rare. In the north-eastern counties, where +till recently he was to be met with in every wild woodland and forest +district, he has entirely vanished. In Ross-shire and in the west he is +occasionally found in places where the wild cat and marten are making +their last stand against the keeper and his exterminating engine, the +steel trap. In Ireland the badger is still found in the Wild West. I +have come upon him in Connemara, near the Killery harbour, and have +heard of him in Kerry and other counties.</p> + +<p>As to the distribution of the badger in Ireland I quote the following +interesting letters from the <i>Field</i>:—</p> + +<p>"'Lepus Hibernicus' may be glad to know that the badger is still fairly +common in the neighbourhood of Clonmel. The country people, who know +them better under the name of 'earth-dogs,' in distinction to +'water-dogs,' or otters, not unfrequently catch them in one way or +another, and offer them for sale. Fortunately for the badger the demand +is extremely limited."—Badger (Clonmel).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> "Permit me to coincide with +'Lepus Hibernicus' respecting the plentifulness of the badger in +Ireland. Some years since I was on a large estate in Co. Clare, and +badgers were abundant on the domain and the adjoining property; I also +found them numerous in the wilds of Galway. I have found and killed them +in many parts of England and Wales, but have seen and trapped far more +in the west of Ireland."—J. J. M. "Your correspondent, 'Lepus +Hibernicus,' in the <i>Field</i> of November 5, mentions that badgers are by +no means uncommon in Ireland. I am in the west of Cornwall, and there +are any amount here, a great deal too plentiful to please me, as I am +sure they do a lot of harm to rabbits and game. I found the parts of a +fowl in a field, evidently killed by a badger, as there was a trail not +a foot away, and also a hole scratched, which could be the work of none +other than a badger. I had two very big ones brought to me alive last +week. They were caught by setting a noose of thin rope in their run. I +should like to know a good way to exterminate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> them, as, though I shoot +over a great deal of ground, I have never seen one out in daytime, but +their trail is everywhere."—H. J. W. "The badger is by no means rare in +the west of Clare, where I have trapped several."—A. H. G. "I beg to +inform 'Lepus Hibernicus' that badgers are by no means scarce in this +place."—A. R. Warren, Warren's Court, Lisarda, Cork. "The badger in +this part of the Co. Cork is certainly not rare—Owen, Sheehy, Coosane, +and Goulacullen mountains, with the adjoining ranges, afford shelter to +a goodly number. Farm hands occasionally capture unwary ones, and offer +them for sale as pets, or to test the mettle of the national terrier, or +to be converted into bacon. A badger's ham is often seen suspended from +the rafter of a farmer's kitchen."—J. Wagner (Dunmanway, Co. Cork).</p> + +<p>The counties in which I have had most acquaintance with the badger have +been Radnorshire, Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and +Cornwall, but perhaps most of my experience has been gained in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +last-named county, as far as digging for him is concerned; whilst it is +at home in Cleveland that I have watched him for nearly twenty years, +and gained some knowledge of his mode of life and habits. I am not sure +whether there are not a few still left in the Cheviots and the districts +of the Upper Tyne and Tweed. Up till about 1850 they were to be found on +the Cleveland hills, or rather on their wooded sides and in the "gills." +The last place where I heard of them being hunted was in the ravine and +woods of Kilton.</p> + +<p>A badger's earth or warren is properly and generally called a "set" or +"cete." They vary in respect of size, number of entrances, depth of +galleries, and choice of site almost as much as rabbit-holes. Sometimes +badgers will find sufficient room in rocks to make a home, and it is +extraordinary the excavations they occasionally make in apparently solid +rock. Usually, however, they select some softer material in which to +make their underground passages and chambers. They will choose a quiet +hillside away from man's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> habitation, amongst the whin bushes, or in the +woods near a stream or small runner of water. Such a "set," if long +established, will penetrate through earth, clay, and sub-soil, to some +stratum of shale, or sand, or loose rock. Some of the galleries and +chambers will be at a great distance from the surface, and some at an +enormous depth. When a new earth is made I have always found the badger +appropriate the holes of rabbits, and proceed to excavate, enlarge, and +open them out. This operation of opening a new earth takes place +constantly in the spring-time, great masses of material being thrown +out; but as often as not the new house is abandoned before completed, +and the subsequent labours of the family are devoted to repairing, +enlarging, and making new front or back doors to the old place. In +Cornwall I once tried my hand with my brother, some strong Cornishmen, +and a team of terriers, at a very innocent-looking badger "set" situated +in a level field. There were but three holes, and these not very far +apart. The farmer told us that there had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> been badgers there all his +life, and no one had ever been able to dig one out. This rather +stimulated us than otherwise, and we had in the course of a few hours +dug a trench some six feet deep, and were nearing the sounds of the +subterranean conflict, which had been sustained by the terriers, when +suddenly we found that we were above the sound, and we sank a shaft down +three feet from the bottom of our trench, to find galleries and chambers +in all directions. The battle had by this time moved, and we were in +despair at the prospect of following on the level with a depth of nine +feet of surface soil to be lifted in every direction we turned. I was +listening at the bottom of the trench, having penetrated to the third +storey of this underground barrack, when I distinctly heard the +"bump-bump" of the badger below me. My companions came down and listened +too, and there was not the slightest doubt that there was a fourth +storey and labyrinth of passages some three or four feet below us, and +for anything we knew another beyond. The day was far spent, the task was +impossible,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> and the rest of our time was devoted to getting the +terriers out, and making as good a retreat as we could before the +victorious enemy.</p> + +<p>I should think this "set" was hundreds of years old, and some of the +passages, the farmer told us, were a hundred yards long! As a rule a +badger's hole descends rapidly at first, and then may branch into any +number of by-ways and subterranean galleries. Whichever route you +follow, however, you invariably come to a chamber or "oven," which is +generally a sort of vaulted hall, where four ways meet, and which is, or +has been, the living-room of the family at some previous time. Where +there is an old-established "set" it is difficult to drive the badgers +permanently away from it. They may leave it for a while from fancy, or +because of disturbance, but they will certainly return.</p> + +<p>The badger and his wife have a regular spring cleaning after the winter +is over, and about March and April a cart-load of winter bedding, +rubbish, earth, and sweepings will be thrown in a few nights outside the +front<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> door. There is generally the old bedding left in one or two of +the big chambers for the lady who is to be brought to bed in February, +March, or April; and there is another turn-out after this interesting +event has been accomplished. About the middle of June, in July and +August, and as late as October and November, an extraordinary amount of +fresh bedding will be taken in. On summer evenings I have watched the +badgers at work, but regret that I cannot substantiate the following +description:—"Badgers when they Earth, after by digging they have +<a name="entered" id="entered"></a><ins title="Original has entred">entered</ins> a good depth, for the clearing of the Earth out, one +of them falleth on the back, and the other layeth Earth on the belly, +and so taking his hinder feet in the mouth draweth the Belly-laden +Badger out of the Hole or Cave; and having disburdened herself, +re-enters and doth the like till all be finished."</p> + +<p>No, this is not how it is done, though it is a curious sight to see the +real thing. The badger will come out, take a look round, and sit awhile +close to the mouth of the hole.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> He will then shuffle about and get +further from the hole. You will watch him descend into some +bracken-covered hollow, and will see nothing more of him for awhile. +Then you will hear him gently pushing and shoving and grunting, and know +that he is very busy over something. He will reappear bumping along +backwards, a heap of bracken and of grass or old straw, left from a +pheasant feed, under his belly, and encircled by his arms and fore-feet. +He will continue this most undignified and curious mode of retrogression +to the earth, and will disappear tail first down his hole, still hugging +and tugging at his burden.</p> + +<p>"It is very pleasant to behold them when they gather materials for their +Couch, as straw, leaves, moss, and such-like; for with their Feet and +their Head they will wrap as much together as a man will carry under his +arm, and will make shift to get into their Cells and Couches" (<i>The +Gentleman's Recreation</i>).</p> + +<p>I have not seen a badger make more than two such excursions by daylight, +but have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> no doubt that after dark a considerable number of such +journeys may be accomplished. For weeks together, on any morning, you +may see the litter of bracken and grass strewing the way to his home and +down the various entrances.</p> + +<p>And now let me again, with all possible respect, put some of our +scientific friends right. It is not often that an amateur can; but a man +who is not able to tell you everything, as these learned men do, about +every living creature, may from a country life and experience be able to +correct some errors in respect of one animal at least. M. Buffon, the +immortal and wonderful natural historian, tells us that the badger is a +solitary animal. This is the reverse of truth; he is less solitary than +the fox. He is fond of company; he is monogamous, and clings closely and +faithfully to his own wife. With badgers, as with the human race, the +sexes are not precisely equal in numbers, and often, from the force of +circumstances, a badger has to remain a celibate, but he is not a +bachelor by choice. He may become a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> widower, but in either case he will +travel far to seek a partner to share his shelter and his lot. It is not +altogether rare to find an old solitary dog badger, who has loved and +lost, or taken in late age to a hermit's cell; but he, as often as not, +when he has failed to secure the companionship of the gentler sex, has +found some other male to share his home, when they can live comfortably +<i>en garçon</i>.</p> + +<p>Nor do the married pair shun the society of their kind. I have often +seen large badger "sets" almost as full of badgers as a warren is of +rabbits. One evening, near my house, I waited an hour of midge-plagued +time to watch the badgers come out from a small "set," and was rewarded +by seeing a procession of seven full-grown badgers emerge from a single +hole, and I had them all in full view for something like twenty minutes. +As this was in July they could hardly be one family. They were every one +more than a year old, and a badger's family is usually two in number, +sometimes three, and never more than four; and this last is exceedingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +rare in my experience. In no sense, therefore, is the badger solitary. +Indeed I have actually known myself several instances of a badger and +fox living in apparent amity in the same earth, whilst I hardly ever saw +a badger "earth" that was not either itself or the immediate vicinity +tenanted by rabbits. As to the consistency of any friendship that exists +between badgers and foxes and rabbits, I shall have more to say later +on. I have, however, taken a badger and rabbit out of the same hole +lying side by side. The badger is said to be the protector of the +rabbit. He does not altogether deserve this title, and the rabbit enjoys +the immunity in a badger's earth chiefly from the fact that the badger +cannot follow it in the smaller holes without digging, an effort which +in his estimation is, as a rule, not worth the candle.</p> + +<p>Buffon dwells on the cleanliness of the badger. He certainly is not the +stinking animal he is accused of being. His house and himself are as a +rule bright and cleanly looking, and it is only when in confinement,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +and deprived of the sanitary arrangements to which he is accustomed, +that he becomes offensive. Writers are not correct in saying that he +never deposits his dung in his earth, but as a rule he does not, and his +habit is to go some little distance from his home, dig a hole, and there +leave his excrement. He will use the same hole for a few days, and then +cover it up with earth and make a new one. There is a smell about a +badger "earth," but it is not disagreeable, and nothing like so rank and +strong as that of a fox's. He is, however, often troubled with lice and +ticks, so that it is desirable when your dogs have been to ground +carefully to wash them. But in this respect a badger is not worse than +sheep and goats, and with such a coat as he has it is no wonder that it +is sometimes tenanted. The same distinguished authority states that the +badger produces its young in summer, but I have never known this happen. +March is the usual month, and the rule is not earlier than February nor +later than April. A naturalist at Cambridge told me that he knew of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +badger bitch that was many months in confinement (I think he said +eighteen months), and gave birth to cubs—but I was not convinced of the +accuracy of his statement that she had never had access to one of her +kind. It is only fair to mention that Vyner, in his <i>Notitia Venatica</i>, +states that "It is a fact perhaps not generally known, nevertheless +curious, that badgers go twelve months with young. This fact I <i>learned +from a neighbour of mine in Warwickshire</i>, who some years ago dug out in +the spring a sow badger. She was confined in an outhouse for twelve +months, at about which period she produced one young one. During her +confinement it was impossible for her to have been visited by a male."</p> + +<p>That an animal of this size should go with young for such a period is so +extraordinary, and so great an exception to the ordinary provisions of +nature, that the theory requires much greater support than mere hearsay +evidence. If it were a fact, or if it were the rule, the evidence to +support the theory of twelve months' gestation should be overwhelming,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +considering the number of badgers that are in confinement. I have had +many in confinement for long periods, and have never known them to give +any evidence in support of this theory. I have kept a pair for a long +period, but, like many other wild animals in confinement, they never +bred. All sorts of theories exist as to the period of gestation in +badgers, but I think I shall be very near the mark when I say that they +go with young about nine weeks, and I conceive that the mistake made by +those who have thought that they go over a year is due to the fact, +which I have noticed, that a pair of badgers do not breed every year. I +cannot decide whether there is any precise rule, but am inclined to +think that they breed once every two years. There are so many accounts +of single badgers kept in confinement bringing forth young after a much +longer period of gestation that it appears possible that the female has +the power known to be possessed by the Roe-deer doe of postponing the +operation of parturition for a considerable time.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +The badger is not by nature a ferocious animal, though the female will +repel with the greatest savagery any approach when she has young, but so +will a hen with chickens. The temperament of the badger is a gentle, +shrinking one. No animal prefers a more quiet life, loving a warm bed in +a dry dark corner of earth or rocks. He loves to sleep and meditate in +peace for the greater part of the twenty-four hours. He lies not far +within his entrance hall during the spring and summer, and on a hot day +he will sometimes come to the mouth of his hole. In the evening, in June +or July, he will come outside, sit looking into the wood or shuffle +round the bushes, stretch himself against the tree-stems, or have a +clumsy romp with his wife and little ones; and when the daylight dies he +will hurry off, rushing through the covert for his nightly ramble. In +the summer months he will travel as far as six miles from home, but he +is in bed again an hour before sunrise.</p> + +<p>It is only at this time of the year that he can be hunted above ground. +This can be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> done with a few beagles or harriers on a moonlight night, +when, finding him in the open, they will give a merry chase and fine +cry, and a run of several miles without a check. If his earths are +stopped, and he finds no other refuge, he will be brought to bay. In +some districts I have known sacks put into the mouths of the most used +holes of a set, the open end of each sack having a running noose pegged +into the ground, thus providing an astonishing reception on his return +as he charges in, disturbed or pursued in his midnight ramble. By this +means he is taken alive and unhurt, being bagged and secured in his +attempt to enter. At other times of the year, when the days are short +and the nights longer, he comes out later in the evening, waits for a +moment at the mouth of his earth, takes a preliminary sniff round, and +then rushes off at the top speed into the covert.</p> + +<p>The badger is easily domesticated if brought up by hand, and proves an +interesting and charming companion. I had at one time two that I could +do anything with,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> and which followed me so closely that they would bump +against my boots each step I took, and come and snuggle in under my coat +when I sat down. I was very much attached to them, but having to leave +for the London season, I came home after a prolonged absence to find +that they had reverted to their natural disposition, and had forgotten +him who had been a foster-parent to them. As I could not fondle them +without a pair of hedging-gloves on, and they no longer walked at my +heel, I made them a home in the woods, where the thought of their +happiness has helped me to bear my loss.</p> + +<p>Many interesting stories are told of tame badgers. Here is one taken +from the <i>Field</i>: "A few months ago, a farmer in the Cotswolds unearthed +a badger and one youngster about two months old, which were sent to Mr. +Barry Burge, Northleach, who only kept the former a few weeks, when she +died. The orphan was petted very much by its owner. In a short time it +would follow Mr. Burge through the fields and streets, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> answer to +the call like a dog. It is an amusing sight to see the badger along with +its master riding a bicycle. A short time ago Mr. Burge had a fox cub, +which he has succeeded in taming. This fox has taken a great fancy to an +Irish terrier, with which she plays continually. The badger, which is +now about seven months old, is loose about the house at times, but +generally spends most of its time in company with the fox, to which it +is greatly attached, all sleeping snugly together."—G. W. Duckett, +Northleach, R.S.O., Gloucestershire.</p> + +<p>M. le Masson gives a pretty account of his tame badger, which, though it +loses much in translation, I give in English. "I brought up and kept for +more than two years a female badger, which died at last from obesity. +She had been taken from her mother when only eight days old and suckled +by a Normandy bitch, which had already reared me some wolf whelps. +'Grisette,' as she was named, was, like all her kind, omnivorous; meat, +beetles, fruits, certain kinds of vegetables, in fact, all and +everything was welcome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> to her healthy appetite. When out walking in the +country, where she always readily followed me, she would unearth rats, +moles, and young rabbits, which she could scent at the bottom of their +holes. In spite of her thorough domesticity, I never succeeded in +overcoming her antipathy to dogs, and more especially to cats, which she +chased most viciously did they dare to enter the kitchen where she +reigned as queen; and where, such was her sensitiveness to cold, she had +made her bed against the wall in the chimney corner. Here in winter, +buried in her furs, she slept curled up for whole days together. But +which of us is without a fault? A little greedy without being actually +voracious, sweet Grisette sometimes ventured on to the stone-work of the +cooking-stove, and from there was able to discover from which of the +saucepans was exhaled the most savoury odour, and never did she make a +mistake on that score!"</p> + +<p>Du Fouilloux states in his <i>Venerie</i>:—"Je ay veu aux blereaux prendre +deuant moy les petis cochons de laict, lesquelz ilz tray-noient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> tout +vifz en leur terrier. C'est vne[**une?] chose certaine qu'ilz en sont +plus friandz que de toutes autres chairs: car si on passe vn[**un?] +carnage de porceau par dessus leurs terriers, ilz ne faudront iamais de +sorter pour y aller."</p> + +<p>The badger is credited with a special love for pork. I have seen a +statement in an old volume of the <i>Gentleman's Recreation</i>, in which the +writer refers to the taste of the badger for pork. "They love +Hog's-flesh above any other; for take but a piece of Pork and train it +over a badger's Burrow, if he be within, you shall quickly see him +appear without."</p> + +<p>Badgers are omnivorous. In their wild state their food is principally +roots and insects—they are especially fond of beetles and such +creatures as are to be found just below the surface of the ground, or +under the decaying dung of cattle. The natural history books say they +eat frogs. This may be true, but I have not observed it. I have tried +badgers in confinement with all sorts of insects and grubs, but I never +could get them to touch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> slugs or worms. They are carnivorous, and eat +mice, rats, voles, and moles. They will take a rabbit out of a trap, +turn it inside out, and eat all the meat, leaving the skin behind, +turned neatly with the fur inside. They are also fond of very young +rabbits, and will dig a shaft through several feet of solid earth direct +on to the nest. But when this has been stated, nearly all has been said +with regard to their propensity to damage in game coverts. I am +supported by other observers in this opinion; for instance, a recent +writer in the <i>Field</i> who says:—"In reply to E. T. D'Egmont's inquiry +about catching badgers, I have never found them do much harm to the +nests of winged game; but they are death on rabbits, and much resemble a +fox in finding a young one appetizing. Their skins would make good +waistcoats, but, apart from that, I would not destroy them upon any +property of my own, because they do so much more good than harm in +divers ways. We have a small property in my family, where foxes and +badgers lie up together in close proximity to a rabbit warren, upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +inhabitants of which they feed. It is a spot practically unknown to the +outward gaze of man, as it is difficult of access; and I should fancy +that any one attempting to attack their stronghold would meet with a +stubborn resistance. Badgers mostly go seeking for food during the +night-time. Where they abound, one occasionally meets them walking +quietly along a path, with their snout low down, and occasionally giving +a kind of grunt like a mongoose. They are very fond of honey. A bag +pegged back over the entrance to their holes is a good way of catching +them."</p> + +<p>They do not hunt for rabbits or game like a fox or cat, and though there +are undoubtedly instances of their taking partridge and pheasant eggs, +in my experience I have never known it done by those around me, nor from +other places where they have ample opportunity of doing so. I have known +a pheasant rear a young brood on an earth tenanted by badgers; but, +curiously enough, I have known a similar case on a fox's earth, +containing a vixen and cubs, and I cannot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> defend the general character +of a fox in regard to game. Still it may be taken that a badger, though +occasionally eating rabbits and rarely eggs, does not hunt for game, +ground or feathered, or do a hundredth part of the damage done by a fox +or a cat. There have always been more rabbits, hares, and pheasants in a +hollow near my house, where there is a large colony of badgers, than in +any other part of the coverts. The badger has a special weakness for +wild honey, and the grubs of wasps and humble bees. The wildest and most +unconciliatory badgers I have ever had in confinement would come out and +eat a wasp's nest, and they will hunt every bank and hedgerow in July +and August, routing out every wasp's and hornet's nest in the +country-side. A keeper told me that upon one occasion, when he was +walking along the covert edges in summer-time about nine o'clock in the +evening, his attention was arrested by a curious chapping, champing +noise, and looking over the fence he saw an old badger with his head in +a huge wasp's nest hanging in a bramble bush, and he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> crunching up +and eating with the greatest gusto the wasps and grubs, quite undeterred +by the thousand angry insects that covered his head and body. In truth, +I must admit that while he is thus useful, he has been known to enter a +garden and upset the hives and purloin the honey, being as fond of it as +his larger cousins, the bears.</p> + +<p>I must also bring another charge against him. Let me introduce this +painful subject by giving the following correspondence from the <i>Field</i> +newspaper:—</p> + +<p>"Wilfred writes—'I shall be obliged if you will allow me to ask your +readers whether they have known old badgers to kill fox cubs. Last year +our M.F.H. gave a neighbouring keeper a litter of cubs. He put them into +a natural empty fox-earth, and kept them shut in until they had got +fairly on their feed, and were quite at home. When he opened the earth, +and allowed them to come out, they played about, and all went well for +two or three days, when he found one at a little distance from the mouth +of the earth dead, with its skull smashed in,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> and very much bitten +about the head and neck. He lost the lot in the same way in a few days. +He thought an old badger or fox killed his cubs. About this time I got +five cubs, and put them into an empty artificial fox-earth. All went +well with them for some time after they played out, when the keeper +reported finding one about twenty yards from the earth dead, and killed +after the same fashion as my neighbour's cubs, and I too lost mine. In +the same artificial earth I had a natural litter this season, and the +cubs played out well; but on the keeper telling me he did not think they +were there now, I went to examine the earth, found the foxes gone, and +the earth occupied by an old badger. I had a litter of fox cubs in the +deer park here, where I live, and all went well with them until ten days +ago, when one was picked up dead, killed in the same manner as those +last year, and another was found dead yesterday. I feel quite certain +myself that they were killed by an old badger or an old fox, for I am +sure if killed by dogs they would not smash the skull and neck. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> shall +be glad if any one can enlighten me on this subject.'"</p> + +<p>In reply to "Wilfred" there were several letters, among which were the +following:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>"Sir,—Undoubtedly; every one that they can get near, and more +especially hand-reared cubs that have not got the old foxes to +protect them. I was first told this by old Jem Hills, the +well-known huntsman of the Heythrop, in his latter years; and +subsequently I had positive proof of what he said. On one +occasion a man brought a fine half-grown cub to my house which +he had picked up dead in the road he came along. It was bitten +most severely through and behind the shoulder, and I at once +remarked to a friend that was with me, 'That is the work of a +badger.' On going down to an earth where I knew there was a +natural litter, we found tracks of a badger all about the place, +as if he had been hunting the cubs. Having at the time eight +cubs that I was hand-rearing in an artificial drain, I thought +it was high time to look after them, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> though regularly fed, +I did not always watch to see whether they all came to feed. +However, I did so that evening, and only two came, and these +looked very wild and scared. I then searched the plantation, and +picked up four of my cubs killed quite recently, and bitten in +the same savage way. A few weeks after we killed a big boar +badger in the drain. Several years later, I was again rearing +some hand-bred cubs, and everything went well until they were a +good size, when one morning I found one of them killed, +evidently by a badger; and I eventually took four more of them, +and the others were all driven away. This badger beat me for +some little time, but I got him at last. Though old badgers and +foxes are often found in the same earth, more frequently when +one of the latter has been run to ground by hounds, yet, as a +rule, they give each other wide berths. If your correspondent +'Wilfred' wishes to save his cubs, let him kill every badger as +soon as possible."</p> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>"Sir,—Replying to 'Wilfred's' question, 'Do badgers kill fox +cubs?' I cannot say they do, because there are no badgers in +this district; but having at different times had young foxes +killed in the way he describes, namely, bitten in the head, I +can assure him that it is done by an old dog fox. Should he wish +for further information, I refer him to Mr. John Douglas, Royal +Hotel, Pudding Chare, Newcastle-on-Tyne, who will tell him of +the experience he gained when at Clumber, under the Duke of +Newcastle."</p> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<p>"Sir,—I may tell 'Wilfred' that I have never known old badgers +kill fox cubs, though I have studied the habits of both for +nearly forty years. No doubt an old vixen, with no cubs of her +own, killed his; the dog fox will not do this. Indeed, he will +cater for all the cubs of his own get, but a strange vixen is +very apt to kill any cubs which have no mother of their own. I +have known a terrier bitch kill a litter of foxhound puppies, +and one of my Irish terriers will kill puppies if she has the +chance. As to the 'natural' litter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> which 'Wilfred' found gone, +they had merely been shifted by the vixen; as soon as the cubs +get able to travel they are always shifted. Last year I had two +tame wild ducks sitting in a hedge. A badger passed regularly +within a yard of them every night, but they were undisturbed. +This year a fox took one of them just before it hatched. I was +sorry to read the other day in the <i>Field</i> an account of two old +and four cub badgers having been dug out in Gloucestershire. +There is surely no sport in this, and the badgers are destitute +of grease now, whereas at Michaelmas they are fat enough to +provide grease for all the rheumatic people in the parish. I +like to catch one with my terriers when the harvest moon shines. +Sometimes I get up in a convenient tree near the earth and watch +the badgers feeding on the crazy roots. How fond they are of the +wild bees' honey, and also of wasps' nests. Let me advise +'Wilfred' to read the exhaustive and interesting account given +in a letter to the <i>Times</i> (October 24, 1877), and quoted in +<i>Cassell's Natural History</i>, vol. ii. It thus concludes—'The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +badgers and the foxes are not unfriendly, and last spring a +litter of cubs was brought forth very near the badgers; but +their mother removed them after they had grown familiar, as she +probably thought they were showing themselves more than was +prudent.' Mr. Ellis of Loughborough was the author of the +letter, and he had rare opportunities of studying the habits of +badgers."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>I am loth to do it, but wishing to be an impartial historian, am +compelled to state that the badger is capable of vulpicide. As a rule he +can put up with an occasional lodger of the fox family, and live happily +with him, and from his superior qualities as an architect of +subterranean dwellings, he is on the whole an encourager of foxes. He +often gives up his spacious apartments to a vixen in the spring, and +submits to eviction. A fox will often take possession of a badger's +earth, new or old; and in order to persuade foxes to take to a +particular covert, no surer method can be pursued than to get badgers to +make earths when they are required. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> even a badger's patience can be +exhausted, as the following history of my own experience will show. I +would premise, however, that I do not credit the oft-repeated story that +the fox gets rid of the badger by leaving his evacuations in the +badger's earth. Being the less and weaker animal, all a fox does is +allowed on sufferance. My suspicions of a badger's capability to wage +war on foxes were first aroused some years ago. The badgers had made a +fine double set of earths on the north side, of a hill in a neighbouring +larch wood, where no effort on my part to get foxes to breed and stay +had succeeded. No sooner, however, was a colony of badgers established +than foxes haunted the holes and covert. In a succession of years there +was as certain to be a litter of fox cubs in the badger earth as a +sunrise on the morrow.</p> + +<p>What happened each spring was that the foxes and badgers frequented both +sets indiscriminately till about March. When the vixen lay in the +badgers abandoned the set of holes where she was, and restricted +themselves to the other set some twenty yards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> distant. Year after year +the fox cubs prospered and grew up, till one summer the keeper found a +fox cub in a field with his head bitten in two and terribly worried. I +did not know how to account for it. I watched the vixen and the other +cubs one evening to see that they were all right, and saw them, but +found they had left the earth and were in the covert. For two years all +went well and the foxes were unmolested, and then occurred something +that gave me a clue to the death of the cub three years before. Two +vixens lay in at the badgers' earth, and brought up their families of +seven and four respectively, till they were about one-third grown. There +were then to my knowledge at least four badgers and twelve foxes in +these two earths. On one or two occasions the stillness of the night was +broken by the veriest pandemonium at the earth, but still I did not +think much of it. At the end of the hunting season, at the end of April, +when the cubs were seven or eight weeks old, and a fortnight after the +hounds had been through the coverts, I found the largest and finest of +the vixens dead, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> thought that, in spite of the earths being open, +she must have been chopped by the hounds. A post-mortem examination, as +well as the improbability of a vixen with cubs being out in the early +part of the day, convinced me that she had not been killed by hounds. +She seemed to have been badly bitten through the legs and thighs but not +on the body. From this time the other vixen and all the cubs left the +badgers' earths and remained in the covert. It was on this occasion that +an attempt to find out how many badgers there were in these earths was +rewarded by seeing seven full-grown badgers emerge from a single hole. +It was rough, no doubt, that the badgers should be invaded by two large +families of smelling foxes, and no doubt their patience had become +exhausted. Still I could not tolerate this kind of behaviour, and so I +had a dig at them, took two old ones out, and transported them to +Scotland. The following year there was peace and fox cubs again. The +year after, however, the vixen and her cubs took off into the covert +very early after another bit of Bank Holiday<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> business, at a time of +night when all respectable people were quietly in bed. And yet all +through the year foxes are in the earth, and this spring, as heretofore, +a litter of cubs has been raised, but removed to another earth at a safe +distance from the badgers. I have never heard of badgers taking the +offensive against foxes; they will never molest a fox or vixen unless +their earth is invaded, and in my case if I had had no badgers in this +covert I should have had no foxes; and whilst it is annoying that the +fox cubs and vixen should be driven out, and perhaps occasionally +killed, the drawback is slight when it is considered that as long as +there are badgers there will be a litter of cubs, which nine times out +of ten will get safely off.</p> + +<p>There are every now and then albino badgers reported, but I have never +seen one alive. I think, however, they are more subject to albinism than +most animals. I do not know of a case of melanism.</p> + +<p>"<i>White Badger at Overton, Hants.</i>—While digging for badgers on April +30, we came across two dog badgers in the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> earth, one of which was +quite white, the colour of a white ferret, with pink eyes. +Unfortunately, the terriers punished him so much he had to be destroyed. +I have helped to dig out a great many of these animals, but never saw +nor heard of a white one before."—T. P.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +<a name="part_iii" id="part_iii"></a>PART III</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> are several methods by which the badger can be taken alive, or +killed, with ease. I am familiar with several successful ways of +trapping him. The reader, if he is not aware of these, must not expect +me to enlighten him, as my object in writing is to arouse an interest in +his preservation, not to facilitate his destruction. It may be as well +to state, however, that the inhuman engine, the steel trap (by which so +many of the birds and beasts that frequented the wild woods of England +and Scotland have been exterminated) is an instrument that arouses the +suspicion of a badger at once, and he is as clever in avoiding it as an +old-fashioned rat. The badger if caught in a steel trap will frequently +bite his leg or foot clean off. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> my opinion there are two legitimate +methods of hunting the badger. First, that of a straight-forward attack +on his fortress; and should it be an old-established earth, it may be +the end of the longest day will not see the battle ended. There are, of +course, the fortunes of war—a lucky engagement, a wrong turn on the +part of the defender, a successful trench quickly cutting off his +retreat—which may deliver him unexpectedly into your hands; or the +enemy may outwit you altogether, conducting a masterful retreat, with +gallant sorties on the dogs, and by continually changing his front drive +you to abandon works, trenches, and operations that have cost great +labour and time; thus you may be left with a tired and wounded pack of +terriers, exhausted sappers, and the badger, having blocked and +barricaded his retreat with soil, stones, and sand, is lost. The war +thus made is an equal one: you attack him on his own ground in his +fortress where he is acquainted with every passage, gallery, and +casement; he is armed to the teeth and armour-plated, and can drive a +road<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> forward, downward, or upward with extraordinary rapidity. It is +true you may have many terriers, but he has an advantage over your +forces. Only one of your dogs can engage at a time, and the badger has +the advantage of weight, size, knowledge of the ground, and familiarity +with the dark—in fact, in every respect except those of courage and +endurance, which in some terriers may equal his own. The other method, +less sure, depends on taking the badger off his guard, and is more in +the character of an ambuscade under cover of night. When the badgers are +away from home you block up their earths, placing sacks with running +nooses in the mouth, in the most frequented holes. Station one of your +party near the "set," and you may either take a small pack of hounds and +draw the country for a few miles round, and hunt him like a fox, getting +a run across country and a fine cry; or you may beat the neighbouring +coverts with men and dogs of any description that are trained to hunt +the badger.</p> + +<p>In the following, taken from an article<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> which appeared in a newspaper, +there is a good account of night hunting.</p> + +<p>"Owing to his shy and retiring habits, rather than to the scarcity of +the animal, probably less is known about the badger than about any wild +animal left in England at the present time. There is a prevalent notion +that the badger is exceedingly rare, and also that he is harmless; +neither of these ideas is quite correct. In the west especially the +badger is fairly common, but escapes notice owing to his retiring +disposition. Whether he does harm to feathered game or not is a moot +point, but his tracks have been distinctly noticed round plundered +nests; it is certain, however, that he does great damage to ground game +by digging out 'stops' of young rabbits in the spring and summer.</p> + +<p>"When hunted after the fashion generally adopted in the west, he affords +excellent sport to those who are prepared to face a long tramp and the +loss of some of their night's rest. The prosaic way of digging them out +of the earth involves much labour, and has in it no element of sport; +while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> attempting to catch badgers in traps is about as feasible as +trying to catch birds by putting salt on their tails. Driving them into +sacks fixed in the earth is unsatisfactory, as a good game dog is +necessary to press the badger hard, or he will turn from the earth and +seek shelter elsewhere; while, if you have a good dog, the sacks are +unnecessary except for the reception of the badger when caught by the +dog.</p> + +<p>"The paraphernalia of the chase are simple, namely, a good dog, a pair +of badger-tongs, and a sack. A really good dog is very difficult to +obtain; the favourite kind is a cross-bred bull-terrier, about forty +pounds in weight; pure-bred bull-terriers, for some reason or other, do +not seem to give satisfaction. The 'tongs' have wooden handles, and iron +heads with blunt teeth for grasping the badger when held by the dog. For +a successful hunt it is necessary to observe which way the badger +travels from the earth. A favourite spot is the slope of a hill, or +high-lying fields, where they may be easily tracked by the 'roots,' +<i>i.e.</i> small holes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> which they scratch in the ground in search of beetles +and roots of various kinds. They rarely descend into low-lying meadows, +except to drink. Choose a starlight night with a slight breeze blowing, +and approach the earth up the wind. Do not hurry your dog; if he knows +his work, he will range freely, but he often takes a long time to puzzle +out the track. If you miss him, go on slowly in the direction in which +you last saw him, often stopping to listen.</p> + +<p>"'What was that?' The dry sticks crack in a hedge far below you. 'Hark! +two sharp eager barks; what does it mean?' Why, that Grip is wheeling +out in a half-circle to gain slightly on the badger, and then to dash in +and get him by the head. Run now as you never ran before. Head over +heels into a ditch; never mind, up and on again—the best dog can't hold +a badger for ever. There they are out in the open, Grip with a tight +hold of the badger by the side of the head, with his legs tucked back +out of harm's way. Grasp him with the tongs as near the neck as +possible. Take off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> the dog, some one. Hold the bag. Hoist our +grey-coated friend into the air, and lower him into the sack; he weighs +at least thirty pounds. The dog is hardly marked, and you haven't torn +more than three rents in your nether garments getting through that last +thorn hedge. Altogether, every one agrees that it was a satisfactory +little run.</p> + +<p>"The old English sheep-dog I have known do well for the other method. +The badger when pursued makes straight for home, blunders headlong into +the hole, only to find that his efforts to get in are closing the mouth +of the sack, that retreat or fighting are alike in vain, and that he is +an imprisoned bagman, without having struck a blow in self-defence. It +is not uncommon for a badger thus pursued to stand at bay, when a good +dog may keep him in play, or hold on, till you come up and secure him. +No doubt there is amusement and excitement in this moonlight chase, and +to some it is preferable to the arduous labour with pick, spade, axe, +and terrier."</p> + +<p>To my mind, however, there is something more interesting and exciting in +the long-sustained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> conflict and labour of the latter, for which you +require perseverance, wit, patience, and courage on the part of man and +terrier. The courage and endurance that a good terrier will display when +need requires before such a foe, will fill his owner's heart with joy +and pride. A good terrier is a veritable treasure; the price of a sure, +game, and determined one is far above rubies. Picture what it means for +a small terrier to enter into the bowels of the earth to find, to cope +with, and for long hours in dust and darkness in the tortuous maze to +keep up an unequal fight with an enormously superior foe, whose grunts +and clattering teeth add terror to his charges down the echoing ways. +Yet I have had not a few that, hour after hour, on their backs or their +sides, would lie up to a badger, keeping him cornered, and continuously +give tongue with no voice to direct them. Should the badger charge, such +a terrier would rather die than let him leave the corner to which he has +been driven, and will return fighting and facing his huge opponent, +driving him inch by inch into the <i>cul de sac</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> caring neither for bite +nor wounds, and making noise enough to let you know where the battle +rages. It is no part of his duty to tackle the badger. A good terrier +knows this, and will only resort to his teeth should the badger attempt +to force a passage. If it comes to close quarters, such a terrier will +draw back his fore-legs under his body, take the attack full in the +face, and trust to seizing the badger by the neck. A badger when +attacked generally bites upwards, <i>i. e.</i> he lowers his head and turns +the back of his head downwards. Nothing makes the heart beat faster +than, with head to the earth, to hear the din of this subterranean +warfare carried along the dark galleries to the day. You have sent in +one of your best terriers; he has tried by cajolery and caresses, by +cries, by straining at his chain to be allowed the honourable +distinction of first blood. You have dispatched him with your blessing, +and he has quickly and silently started on his journey into the unknown. +You listen to him forcing his passage, drawing himself round corners, +scratching away some accumulation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> or fall from the roof, and hear his +eager panting as he winds his foe. Presently you hear a low sharp bark, +then another, then two or three more, next a bumping, thumping noise; it +is the badger, who has waited to see who the intruder is, and, rousing +himself, is retreating. The terrier barks no more, but you can hear the +thump-thump of the badger, followed by the efforts of the dog to keep up +with him. They are now a long way in, and you can plainly hear the bark +again. Soon the fight draws nearer, and the terrier's cry comes to your +ear with regularity and clearness; but the badger is only disputing the +way, he has not yet been driven with his back against the wall. The +terrier redoubles his activity, you can hear him feinting at the badger, +sharp give-and-take, but no foolish attempt to lay hold. After ten +minutes the badger again retreats, probably up the hill, and you have to +listen on the surface or at the higher holes of the set till you can +hear them again. At last you catch a faint sound, they are still moving, +now stationary, now further on; then they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> seem to stay in one place. +There is the steady yap-yap-yap of the dog just distinguishable to the +ear.</p> + +<p>Quick, every hand to work. A trench six feet deep, or deeper if +necessary, must be cut across the set to cut off the badger from the +passages. With pick, spade, and shovel the work goes on, while some one +listens to know whether the scene of battle moves. If it does, the +badger may have found a side gallery, and gone far enough, or he may +have charged the dog. He may have passed by a different road beneath +your feet in the trench; but if the terrier has succeeded in keeping him +face to face and engaged, yet not driving him so hard as to make him +charge, you may be successful in an hour or two, and find that your +cutting intersects the passage in which the badger and the terrier are +engaged. If the badger suspects you are cutting off his only means of +escape he will charge and fight, and the terrier will sometimes be +unable to back fast enough; then there will be a meeting of teeth and +jaws, the badger holding the dog through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> the head, jaw, or nose. The +dog's smothered cries of anger and pain make you strain every nerve to +get to his relief.</p> + +<p>When the badger at last leaves go, the terrier's turn comes, and now +with blood up he drives back the badger to his end of the hole with +every determination to keep him there. After two or three turns like +this, if the dog has been in an hour or two, he will probably come out +for a breath of air for a moment. He should be immediately taken, +fastened up, watered, and kept in reserve for future contingencies, and +the best terrier for sticking up be sent in with the utmost haste. If a +minute has been spent in doing this, every moment will have been used by +the badger in barricading the passage against the dog and burying +himself. This once accomplished, you may as well whistle for your badger +as continue digging, for he may have got down into some other gallery, +or have buried himself so that neither dog nor man can find him. Of one +thing you may be sure, that whilst you are speculating what has become +of him, he is digging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> at a prodigious rate, or has already made his +escape by some secret stair.</p> + +<p>If, however, you are quick, terrier number two has interrupted master +badger as he is at work and lets you know. "It's all right," "Come on," +"He's here," "I've got him," "He's got me," "You beast," "Get back," +"I'll hold him," and spade and shovel and pick are hard at work again. +Backs and arms are aching with lifting at high pressure out of the deep +trench. You dig on, blocking the hole as the roof falls in, but every +now and then the shovels clear it for a moment to give the dog air. And +now the game has shown itself. A terrible charge down the hole sends out +the terrier; and the badger, seeing the men at work, backs again, +followed by the dog. Now all is excitement. Every snap, haunch, grunt, +groan, and yell in the fight is heard. A favourite's life in the +balance! The prize in view! The other terriers are tugging at their +chains, frantic to join the fray, yelling fit to split their throats. It +is maddening for them to see the dust and commotion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> in the trench, to +hear the sound of battle so near, to wind the enemy, to hear the cry of +their fighting and perhaps wounded companion, and not to be allowed to +share in the glory of the final action. Now is the time if you have a +terrier to enter to see what he is made of, but there is no time to +waste on education. You are close up to the badger, he cannot be an +arm's-length off. Draw your dog, the badger will then turn his tail to +you to dig, or he will charge out. Be ready with the tongs, and a good +dog in case he charges. But if he turns tail get hold of it with a good +grip. A long pull and a steady pull will draw him out, bouncing, +lunging, and snapping. Now, boys, ready with the sack! Dogs off. All +want steady nerves now; three hands on the sack mouth to keep it open, +and take care of your fingers! A twirl round and a quick plunge, and the +badger is in the bag. Don't let go his tail till you have slipped the +cord on his hind-leg, and made the other end of the cord fast to the bag +mouth and to a tree. I have seen a badger go through a sack like a +bullet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> through paper, and it is well to make all as safe as possible.</p> + +<p>M. Edmond le Masson, in his book on hunting fox and badger, severely +deprecates tailing a badger. He denounces the danger and folly of it, +and gives an amusing account of his falling into a trench at the +critical moment as follows:—</p> + +<p>"One fine day, or rather one cursed day, when I was sweating blood and +water to get a monster badger out of his earth, a venerable patriarch, +white with years, who resisted my aching tired arms and weary back with +all his strength, the earth gave way and I fell back, rolling over with +the animal, and there I was at the bottom of the abyss in a veritable +pandemonium. Bruised and breathless, I was conscious enough to know that +I was in very bad company, with four more badgers, a furious mother and +three young ones, and not so young either but that one of them was able +to tear from me a large piece of the most indispensable part of my +attire, which placed me in a position of cruel embarrassment, and +obliged me to wait till the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> shades of night enabled me to get home with +decency. The most humiliating part of the adventure was that all these +cursed brutes, father, mother, and children, made the most insolent +retreat over my stomach to escape from their earth, and then took off +straight across country and escaped. From this moment I have felt a +ferocious malice against all badgers, whether big, middling, or little, +and I never go down into the trench now without having a Lefaucheux +revolver and a Devisme revolver, a long dagger knife, and a sharp Toledo +colichemarde!"</p> + +<p>But let not ingenuous youth think that to enjoy the sport all he has to +do is to take a spade and any reputable terrier. He might as well try, +like Dame Partington, to stop the rising tide with a mop! Before so +serious an enterprise as a badger digging be undertaken, the wise man +will see to it that all the materials are ready, and let him be sure +that he has the first necessity—the stout heart to go through with a +tough job when once started. I have, with my brother, Mr. J. A. Pease, +started at 7.30a.m. from home, worked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> a summer's day with a slight +refreshment at one, handled pick and shovel and spade, fought the +terriers, and gone on through the afternoon, evening, and a black wet +night, without even a drop of water to slake our parched throats, +deserted by all but one faithful workman, and on till the grey dawn of +another day, which found us as weary, wet, and wounded, and as +disreputable a looking company of three men and four terriers as ever +survived a bloody action. At five o'clock we secured a splendid pair of +badgers, which we bore home on aching backs, followed by our gallant +little team of draggled and dirty terriers. On another occasion, it took +my brother and myself, some ten labourers and keepers, and nine +terriers, from 10 till 5.30 to take an old 30-lb. dog badger, in an +earth which had only one hole, and where it was a case of following +straight into the hill. It is wonderful what can be done by twelve men +with pick, spade, and shovel in seven hours. On this occasion we dug a +trench ten feet long into the hill, and then the depth of bearing +necessitated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> our making a drift, or tunnel, which we drove in thirty +feet. The heat and want of air inside made the work difficult. Candles +would not burn after we had gone about twenty feet, and the tunnel was +so low that we had to work on our knees and then on our stomachs. There +was a considerable danger from the roof falling in, but the fight waged +so fiercely that we thought of little but what was ahead of us. When at +last we got within distance of the badger, he was in rocky ground, we +could mine no further, and being on a shelf round a corner no terrier +could draw him. As I was the smallest of the party, it fell to me to try +and reach him, and I crawled up as far as I could, holding a little +bull-terrier on whom I could rely for protection for my face, and a pair +of short badger tongs. I had indeed a bad quarter of an hour!</p> + +<p>It was stifling, cramped, and pitch dark. I kept the terrier in front of +my head and gallantly he behaved, though every now and then the badger's +charge, or a fierce encounter, nearly smothered me with dust and soil,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +against which I could not protect myself, as I was powerless to retreat, +there being only room to lie flat on the ground. The man behind me was +in the same position, tight hold of my ankles, and the man again behind +him, and the rest of the force made a human chain, which on a signal +from me was to be drawn out to daylight. Many attempts I made when the +badger charged to get him with the tongs, but I had so little room to +work my hands in that I missed him, and heard and felt the click and +snack of his teeth on the iron. At last I felt I had hold of something, +and I slipped the guard on the tongs, making the hold sure. I cried +"Haul away," holding the terrier with one hand between me and the +badger, and the tongs in the other. I found that he came with wonderful +ease. It was not till we got to the light that I saw I had the huge +bouncing brute by one claw, "Nip" diverting his attention from my head +and hands. The labourers set up a shout, "He's got him by the clee," and +a minute later we had the satisfaction of bagging him. But we were out +only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> just in time. I had gone back with the terriers to see if there +was nothing more in, and hardly had got outside again, when there was a +fall from the roof that would, if it had taken place earlier, have +buried some of us alive. As it was I looked round to see if we were all +there. The men were, but one little terrier, "Pepper," a real treasure +belonging to a neighbour of mine in Cleveland, Mr. J. P. Petch, was +missing. We went in and found him buried, but got him out alive and +little the worse. This was the biggest badger my brother and I ever got.</p> + +<p>But these operations are quite surpassed by those M. le Masson related +in the following authentic story.</p> + +<p>"An extraordinary <i>chasse</i> that lasted without interruption three days +and three nights, took place lately in the neighbourhood of St. Omer, on +some land in the picturesque commune of Wisques, in a wood attached to +the château of Madame la douairière Cauvet de Blanchonval.</p> + +<p>"One morning two young sportsmen of St. Omer, MM. Théobald Cauvet and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +Charles d'Hallewyn, were told by the <i>garde forestier</i> that on his beat +he knew of several badgers near the place they call l'Ermitage.</p> + +<p>"The little dogs being put on the scent soon found the earths, where +they entered, and advanced with so much courage that they never stopped +till they had reached the bottom of the earth, where they cornered the +badgers, which held their ground in an attitude of the most threatening +defence.</p> + +<p>"The assailants, thus powerless, made themselves heard by barking and +baying incessantly, and with heroic pluck, the little fellows refused to +retreat in spite of the repeated calls of their masters.</p> + +<p>"Their perseverance being carried to this length, our young gentlemen +formed a resolution worthy of their taste for great undertakings and +adventures. Labourers were called from the field and commissioned at +once to set to work to reach the badgers.</p> + +<p>"The attempt was more than bold. The mouths of the set, three in number, +were at the foot of a hill, and embraced between them a sort of +triangular piece of land at the apex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> of which the passages all united +and formed a single underground gallery. The dogs having each entered by +a separate hole made this clear.</p> + +<p>"A shaft was sunk in order to start a tunnel at the opening of the +lowest hole, but a depth of 7 to 8 metres (23 to 26 feet) had to be sunk +before the passage was reached; thence they followed the direction taken +by the dogs, and enlarged the tunnel to reach them, making an +underground roadway 5 feet high (1-1/2 metres) and nearly 6 feet wide +(1-3/4 metres).</p> + +<p>"Whilst the workmen were mining, the badgers on their part were also +working ceaselessly, and kept blocking the road with the earth they +threw back in front of the men who were pursuing them, whilst the latter +worked in shifts (relieving parties). For three days and three nights +these indomitable animals worked on, retreating all the time, during +which they bored their way 49 feet whilst buried in this extension of +their principal earth without air or food.</p> + +<p>"At one time during this war <i>à outrance</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> it was thought they had +escaped by some means or other, but the game terriers, which had hardly +left them since the beginning of the struggle, soon reassured the +workers by their redoubled cries. The undertaking was pushed on with +greater determination than ever, and when the tunnel had reached a +length of more than 30 metres (100 feet) they came on three badgers, +which were quickly popped into a sack by the keeper. One of them, +however, in his struggles succeeded in escaping from the sack, and even +tore the clothes of the man who was carrying him. MM. Cauvet and +d'Hallewyn showed a persistent perseverance during the whole of this +struggle. By day and by night each in turn directed the operations of a +siege at which more than one other lover of the pleasures of the chase +assisted."</p> + +<p>I have given one or two out of many examples I could relate of the +arduous nature of badger-hunting. Discipline among the workmen is as +necessary as determination in every attempt to dig out badgers. Nothing +imperils success so much as divided or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> disputed authority, and whilst +every attention should be given to the opinions expressed in the +councils of war during the progress of the siege, there must be no +hesitation in carrying out the plan of campaign when once decided on, or +the day may be wasted in earthworks, in making trenches, and attempts to +cut off subterranean ways which have been begun only to be abandoned. +The terriers are the most important requisite; they must be good, the +right size, hardy, enduring, and reliable. No matter how game a dog is, +if he cannot follow the badger he is useless. He must above all be +full-mouthed, sharp-tongued, and ready to keep his voice going for hours +together. He must be absolutely true, or he may make a fool of you, and +lie fast in the earth baying an imaginary foe, or barking and scratching +to get up a small rabbit-hole. Beware of a terrier that will think of +such vermin when employed to fly at much higher game. They are worse +indeed than useless, and often have I been driven nearly wild by being +persuaded to allow some man proud of his terrier to let him go.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +Nothing can be more exasperating than when, after several hours of heavy +labour and straining effort, whilst the proud owner stands smiling by +and boasting the merits of his nailing dog, you at length reach the +scene of all the disturbance to see a dirty little brute scratching his +feet to tatters, frothing at the mouth, and wow-wowing to get up a +three-inch rabbit-hole.</p> + +<p>An authority in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> recommends collars of bells +being attached to the terriers to make the badger bolt, and states that +broad collars of badger-skin save their necks. The former I do not +believe to be efficacious, as fire, smoke, and crackers will not make a +badger bolt while any one is about, and if it were efficacious it would +be very easy to lose a bolting badger. A collar on a terrier is more +likely to hang a dog on a root end than to save him from a bite. A +terrier ninety-nine times out of a hundred is bitten through the muzzle, +under the jaws, and about the skull and ears, and when inexperienced, +about the fore-legs and shoulders. I never saw a terrier badly bitten in +the neck,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> though I have seen a terrier's side torn, and one that turned +tail punished severely in the rear. Whilst the terrier for badger should +be game to the death, it is all-important that he should mingle +discretion with his valour, and not drive his superior foe to +desperation, but content himself with keeping him at bay, only using his +teeth at a pinch and in extreme cases. Tell me, reader, how many +terriers you know who can or will go to ground, stay there, tell the +truth always, pass through every place a badger can, keep his head under +the most exasperating circumstances, and come up smiling and eager after +every round, no matter how much punished?</p> + +<p>What thousands of little curs there are called terriers, and +fox-terriers that will no more go down a fox-earth than go up a chimney! +How many thousands of the best of these, however finely shaped for the +show-bench, that have no more idea of their profession and the duties +for which nature made them, and from which they derive their name, than +the man in the moon, and whose masters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> are satisfied if they can kill a +few rats, and think them wonderfully game if they will tackle a cat!</p> + +<p>From my boyhood I have had terriers, but I never thought one worth +keeping that could not, or would not, go to ground and show himself or +herself worthy of their honourable name. Appearance is nothing if the +other qualities are not present. I have had a little wire-haired terrier +bitch (with neat, golden-tanned marked head), pretty and gentle, and +winning in all her ways, a companion that slept on my bed each night, +and looked the picture of innocence lying by the hearth or even on a +lady's lap; but within that bosom beat a courageous little heart, in her +head throbbed a brain full of sagacious intelligence, and in that soft +brown eye lurked hidden fire. She could give deep music long sustained, +and she never winced before the enemy. I called her "Worry," a name that +seemed most <i>mal à propos</i> to her casual acquaintance. For twelve long +years she was at my side in all the ups and downs of life, leading the +drag when I was at Cambridge, following foxhounds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> and bolting foxes +when I was hunting, and my constant and daily companion, accompanying me +into every county when I made an expedition against the badger. I was +once amused by the remarks made about Worry by an old shoemaker who +sometimes accompanied us with a good terrier when we were ratting. "Si' +the (see thee), lads, Worry's t' yan (the one) fer (for) pickin' t' wick +(the life) out on 'em," as she threw five or six big rats over her +shoulder in half as many seconds. She died a terrible death, but game +and uncomplaining to the last. She had a knack of squeezing herself +through almost any kennel bars, and I had had to put her into a kennel +for a time, and had the bars made narrower and covered with mesh wire +netting. An hour after I had put her in I went to see her, and I was +horror-struck to find that she was half through the bars nipped as in a +vice, the wire torn with her teeth, and herself covered with blood and +wounds, with one eye hanging out, blood flowing from her mouth, still +fighting her way on—without a sound except her panting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> breath. She was +delighted to see me, and with some trouble I liberated her, cut off her +eye, staunched her wounds, and did all I could for her. She never even +winced as I cut away the eye, and as she lay in her bed looked at me +affectionately with her one eye and wagged her tail. The following day, +though she did not even whine, I saw she was in terrible pain; and as +she was at this time badly ruptured, and very lame owing to a carriage +accident some years before which resulted in a broken thigh and a double +fracture above the hock, I had her shot, and buried in a quiet corner of +the orchard, with the inscription on her headstone "<i>Sit tibi terra +levis</i>."</p> + +<p>The terriers I have found the best and surest are amongst the Yorkshire +breed of hard, wire-haired fox-terriers, short in the leg and strong +headed. All my own have been descended from a white, wire-haired terrier +called Fuss, the best bitch I ever had, and a prize-winner. I bought her +in 1870 or 1871 from a dealer called Wooton. She was bred by a man +called Jack Ridd. Worry was out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> her. My brother got a dog, Roger, a +dead game one, at the same time from the same man, and nearly all the +terriers I have had since are descended from these two, with out-crosses +from local strains, including the Rev. Jack Russell's blood. I have seen +smooth-coated terriers do equally well, but not often. The former is a +harder and more enduring breed, though more difficult to keep clean in +the coat, and taking time to get dry after wet in cold weather. The +endurance of the wire-haired is remarkable. I have now a terrier, bred +through many lines of my old favourites, which is twelve years old. His +jolly face is scored with the marks of a thousand fights with fox and +badger, and though lame in his shoulders, his eyes dim with age, and +crippled with rheumatism, showing toothless gums when he smiles his +welcome, he has twice this summer found alone the badger earths, and +returned at evening, each time with his score of marks increased, and on +the last occasion he left one of his ears behind him!<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> A terrier that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +will go off to a badger earth on his own account, especially if a young +one, will probably end his days and find his grave there. I have known +several do so. Poor old Twig! Always happy, he seldom now wanders +further than the stable-yard, and spends his declining days playing with +the foxhound pup or sleeping in the sun, when in his dreams he fights +his battles over again, and thrice he slays the slain. When we were +young together he followed me every hunting morning to the meet, where +he at once incorporated himself with the pack, greeting his friends in +turn with a grin, a twist of his body, and a wag of his stump; and when +the daylight faded, and the horn sounded for home, I had always to carry +him off on my saddle, so reluctant was he, after the longest day, to +leave his comrades of the chase. This became so troublesome that at last +I yielded to the pressure of the huntsman, Will Nicholl, who then hunted +the Cleveland hounds, to permit him to join the kennel establishment. +For three seasons he scarcely missed a day, and when a fox was run to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +ground, no matter after how long or fast a run, the question, "Where is +Twig?" was never asked twice. Always there when wanted, always +dependable and perfect at his work, he shifted many a sulky fox that +went to ground. Then Will Nicholl went to the Hurworth under Sir +Reginald Graham, and took Twig with him. He did two seasons in the +Hurworth country, from thence going to the Burton with Nicholl again. +After a season there I had a letter saying that Nicholl feared that the +old dog would not follow hounds another season, and he sent him back +with me. I summered him well; he did the next season with the Cleveland, +and came out the following season when hounds were handy or when +occasion required, making eight seasons with foxhounds, besides being +hunted at badger in the summer months. He had learnt not to be hard on a +fox, but I thought I detected him in an act of violence something more +than a year ago. We had run to ground in a drain, and Twig, who had +heard hounds, had come across country as fast as his old legs would +carry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> him, and was in before I could say "Knife." No sooner was he in +than the fox was out, with Twig at his brush. This was not at all what +we wanted, as the whole pack was within fifteen yards. Twig collared the +fox as he bolted, and as the hounds were making a dash at him. I was +angry with Twig, lifted the fox and Twig, who I thought was holding the +fox, above my head to save reynard from the hounds. Here I had to hold +him for five minutes, but when I tried to choke the old dog off, I +discovered that the fox was holding Twig through the upper jaw, and the +dog was hanging with his whole weight suspended on the fox's teeth. +Having made the fox leave go Twig fell to the ground, and when all was +clear I put the fox down, when we had a sharp ten minutes to ground +again. I was there only just in time to prevent Twig from going in to +take his revenge—the fox this time being left in peace. It is as well +to have with you one bull-terrier, or a fox-terrier with a bit of bull +about him. In cases of emergency, and when close up, such a dog comes in +useful, but they are tiresome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> brutes as a rule to do with; they get so +excited that they do not care what they go at, it may be the dogs or +yourself, or I have seen them set to worry a big stone. They often go to +ground well, but have several faults. They <i>will</i> tackle the badger, get +punished severely, and create all sorts of difficulties, and are +generally nearly mute except when fighting.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Dead since this was written. +</div> + +<p>I had a rare life of it on one expedition with a little bull-terrier +called Nip that I bought from a Cornishman, after a long dig in which +Nip had distinguished himself. He was a dirty white, ugly, undershot, +crop-eared little brute, with a tail like a shaving-brush. Shy and +nervous, he had a fiendish amount of pugnacity and pluck. When not +otherwise employed, he wore his teeth to the gums in vain endeavours to +get into the interior of large stones. In a railway-carriage, so +delighted was he at all times to get to ground, that he would get under +the seat, and refuse to be removed if he had not on a collar and chain, +except with the badger-tongs. He had to be muzzled and chained when with +other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> dogs, and even then would make an utter fool of himself in his +attempts to fight on every occasion. He would, when he had lost a +badger, sulk and refuse to come out, and as it was impossible to put in +any other dog while he was there, he had to be dug to and drawn like a +brock. Whilst at the end of a day, when every other animal had had more +than enough, and was glad to get food and rest, he was ready to hold me +by the leg, and it would take the tongs and a couple of men to get his +collar on.</p> + +<p>I have always had a great admiration for the short-coated, hard, Scotch +terrier, and believe that they are admirably adapted for this chase, but +I have had no experience of them. They seem cut out for it, being hardy, +the right size, sharp-tongued, and amongst the most intelligent of the +canine race. I knew of one who went to Craig Cluny in the edge of the +Ballochbuie forest, and spent some hours in a vain attempt to dislodge a +badger. He returned three miles to the inn at Braemar and found another +terrier like himself; they trotted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> back together, and by their united +efforts drew and killed an old badger! There is a spot near this place +in the forest called Stra-na-brach—or the badger's crag—but the badger +knows the place no more. The keeper has done his work with the trap +throughout Aberdeenshire.</p> + +<p>Dandie Dinmont no doubt bred his dogs from these terriers, but I have no +belief that the present race is fitted for badger-hunting. Those one +sees on a show bench are too large to get to ground quickly and easily, +and I doubt if there is one of the race, as at present known, that has +ever exchanged civilities with the badger in his natural earth. Dandie +Dinmont bred his terriers for badgers, but I am sure his never were the +size they are now; and although Sir Walter Scott has surrounded Dandie +with a halo of interest, and made him immortal by his eulogies, his +fiendish cruelties have always made me hate his name, and prejudiced me +against a breed that was developed under a hideous system. It makes my +blood boil to read of his terriers trained to face the badger by taking +alive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> young and old badgers, and sawing off the under jaws, and +employing other indescribably cruel methods.</p> + +<p>The dachshund and the small basset, when properly selected, are +splendidly adapted for badger-hunting. In Germany the former, and in +France the latter, are generally bred for this purpose. Full-voiced and +throwing a tongue like a hound, deep-chested, short-legged, and +strong-bodied, they are perhaps the best one can have, but I do not +think that they possess the endurance and quickness of an English +terrier.</p> + +<p>There was a breed of wire-haired black-and-tan English terriers, but I +imagine them to be nearly, if not altogether, extinct, that from all +accounts must have been really good terriers in the true meaning of the +term.</p> + +<p>In working dogs, be careful only to put in one at a time: you thus +economize your forces, and avoid the risk of their fighting in the +earth. More than this, if you let two dogs or a dog and a bitch in +together, you subject them to danger and the probability of severe +punishment. The dog in front is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> charged by the badger, the dog behind +cares for nothing but that he may get to close quarters, and it is a +case of those behind cry forward and those in front cry back. In such a +position your terrier may have his legs and head broken, and be killed +outright. Again, a good terrier works better and more steadily than with +a companion, as the competition leads to jealousy. Put in your dog at +the lowest or bottom hole of the set, driving the badger up-hill (or "to +hill," as it is technically called) if you can. It is a much easier task +to get a badger out in this manner, as the further up-hill the fewer are +the passages, and generally speaking the nearer they lie to the surface. +Furthermore, take care that you have a collar and chain for each dog, +and that every terrier not on duty is securely fastened at a distance +from the earth, and out of reach of any other dog.</p> + +<p>The following are the requisite implements for badger digging; they +should be good and handy tools:—</p> + +<p>1. and 2. Spades. These should be handy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> and worn to that condition +when the edge is sharp, and the tool works easily, without having lost +its strength. They should vary but little from the ordinary garden or +rabbiting spade, except that where there is a depth of clay, and when in +a deep trench, it may be easier or a relief to use a drainer's long +narrow one.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 263px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig07.jpg" width="263" height="500" alt="Fig. 7." title="" /> +<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 7.</span></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>3. A crowbar.</p> + +<p>4. A scraper, or coal-rake.</p> + +<p>5 and 6. Shovels, for clearing out the loose earth, including a +short-handled one, or scoop, for opening the holes to let in air to the +dogs.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig08.jpg" width="400" height="362" alt="Fig. 8." title="" /> +<span class="caption smcap">Fig. 8.</span> +</div> + +<p>7. An earth-piercer, in order to locate the fight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/ill-fig09.jpg" width="600" height="335" alt="Fig. 9." title="" /> +<span class="caption smcap">Fig. 9.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>8. Tongs. The handles should be of wood, as steel and iron "give" under +the pressure of a man's strength at one end and the badger at the other. +With wooden handles and steel fittings there will still be spring enough +to work the guard, which is put on to secure the hold on the animal.</p> + +<p>9. Adze, or hatchet, for cutting roots of trees.</p> + +<p>10 and 11. Picks, single or double.</p> + +<p>Do not forget when starting on a badger-hunt to take plenty of +refreshment with you, and remember that it is a dry job digging +ceaselessly on a summer's day. Draught cider, light beer, and cold tea +are the best liquors to work on for a long stretch. Do not leave the +sacks behind you, nor cord to secure them with. And finally, reader, if +you are a true sportsman, whilst sparing neither necessary pain to +yourself nor dog during the progress of the siege, do not subject your +terriers to unnecessary exposure and punishment; and when the day's work +is done, however weary and however hungry you may be, do not attend to +your own wants till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> you have seen each member of your gallant little +pack well brushed and oiled (eyes and ears and wounds, if any, cleaned), +fed, and put into a kennel with plenty of clean bedding. And do not +forget to make a brave foe as comfortable as you can. If you keep a +badger in confinement as a pet, he should have access to plenty of fresh +cold water, and be fed on young rabbits and bread till accustomed to +confinement, after which he will take gradually to and remain healthy on +almost any scraps, meat, and vegetables from the house that you give +him. He requires a dry dark kennel and yard, which should be kept +scrupulously clean, when he will never be offensive. Some badgers take +kindly at once to these new circumstances, others sulk and occasionally +waste and die unless great care is taken. If the badger's evacuations +show a tendency to purging, feed on bread chiefly and rabbit, or if +fastidious in his appetite, give raw eggs and bread.</p> + +<p>If by this little book I have done anything towards interesting those +who care about the perpetuation of a wild and interesting animal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> that +is fast disappearing from our hillsides and valleys, and shown that +healthy exercise and pleasure can be obtained in protecting him from +extinction and by fairly entering the lists against him, I shall have +done something towards delaying that sad day when the last badgers, with +the lessons of courage and endurance that they can teach, have vanished +for ever.</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay.</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<div id="box5"> +<p class="noi">Transcriber's Note:</p> + +<p class="noi">Spelling and hyphenation have been retained as in the original +publication, including on Page 61 where "vne" and "vn" have been +retained as published—"C'est vne chose" and "car si on passe vn". +The following change was made:</p> + +<p class="noi">Page 48<br /> +entred a good depth <i>changed to</i><br /> +<a href="#entered">entered</a> a good depth</p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Badger, by Alfred E. 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