The Badger is an indolent, diffident, solitary animal, who retires to
the most secret places, and there digs for himself a subterraneous
residence. He not only shuns society but even the light, spending
three-fourths of life in his obscure retreat, and never venturing out
but in search of food. He burrows the ground with great facility, as
his body is elongated, his legs short, and the claws, those especially
of his fore feet, are very long and compact; his habitation is often
at a considerable distance from the surface, and the passage to it
always oblique and winding. The fox, who is less expert at digging,
often benefits from the labours of the badger; unable to force him
to quit his retreat, he often drives him from it by stratagem. He
stands sentinel, and defiles it with his ordure, which proves an
infallible expedient. The badger gone, he takes possession, enlarges,
and accommodates it for his own purpose. Though forced to remove, the
badger leaves not the country, but digs himself a new habitation at a
little distance, from which he never goes out but at night, even then
not far, and returns upon the smallest appearance of danger. In this
precaution alone consists his safety, for his legs being very short
the dogs soon overtake him. Upon being attacked he throws himself
backwards, and as his legs, claws, jaws, and teeth are very strong,
he is enabled to fight with obstinacy, and it is seldom that he dies
unrevenged.
Formerly, when badgers were more common, terriers were trained up to
hunt and take them in their burrows; but this was no easy task, as
his mode of defence is to retire, and doing so, to undermine great
quantities of earth, either to stop up the passage or bury the dogs
under it. The only certain way of taking him is to open the hole
above, after the dogs have driven him to the extremity. He is generally
taken hold of with pincers, and then muzzled to prevent his biting.
I have had several brought me taken in this manner, some of which I
kept a long time. The young ones are easily tamed; they will play with
dogs, and follow the person from whom they receive their food; but the
old ones always retain their savage dispositions. They are neither
mischievous nor voracious like the fox and the wolf, yet they are
carnivorous; they prefer raw meat, but will eat flesh, eggs, cheese,
butter, bread, fish, fruit, nuts, grain, roots, &c. They sleep the
whole night and three parts of the day, yet they are not subject to a
lethargic torpor during the winter, like the dormouse, or mountain rat;
this makes them very fat, although they eat moderately, and they can go
several days without food.
They keep their holes extremely clean, nor ever defile them with their
ordure. The male is seldom found with the female; when the latter is
about to bring forth she collects a quantity of herbage, which having
bundled up she trails along, between her feet, to the bottom of her
hole, where she converts it into a commodious bed for herself and
young ones; she brings forth in the summer, and generally has three
or four at a time; she nourishes them at first with her milk, but very
soon inures them to such food as she can provide. For them she seizes
young rabbits, field-mice, lizards, grass-hoppers, takes birds' eggs
from their nests, and uncovers bee-hives, where they are buried, and
carries away their honey; all which she carries to her brood, whom
she often brings to the mouth of the hole, in order to feed or suckle
them. These animals are naturally chilly; and those reared in the house
will scarcely ever quit the fire side, which they will approach so
close as frequently to burn their feet, which are not easily cured.
They are very subject to the mange, and will infect those dogs which
penetrate their burrows, unless they are carefully washed. The hare of
the badger is always filthy; between the anus and the tail there is an
opening about an inch deep, but which has no communication with the
interior of the animal, whence an oily ill-scented liquid is constantly
emitted, which the animal is fond of sucking. Its flesh has not a very
bad taste; and of its skin are made coarse furs, collars for dogs,
trappings for horses, &c.
In this species we know of no varieties; and our researches have been
fruitless to discover such as have been said to exist; indeed some of
the differences are stated to be so trivial that they cannot fairly be
considered as distinct from the others; besides those species in which
there are actual varieties are usually very abundant, and generally
diffused, whereas that of the badger is one of the least numerous and
most limited. We are not certain that they are to be found in America,
unless we regard as a variety the animal sent from New York, of which
M. Brisson has given a short description, under the name of the White
Badger. They exist not in Africa, for the animal from the Cape of Good
Hope, which Kolbe describes under the name of the Stinking Badger,
belongs to a different species; and we doubt whether the Fossa of
Madagascar, mentioned by Flacourt, be an actual badger, although he
says they resemble those in France. Other travellers take no notice
of it, and Dr. Shaw even says it is unknown in Barbary. It seems,
likewise, not to exist in Asia; and that the badger was unknown in
Greece is plain from Aristotle's not mentioning it, and its having
no name in the Grecian language. This animal, therefore, is a native
of the temperate climates of Europe, has never been diffused beyond
Spain, France, Italy, Germany, England, Poland, and Sweden, and even in
those countries it is not very common. There are not only no varieties,
but the badger (_fig. 64._) does not approach any other species. Its
characteristics are striking and singular; to it exclusively belong the
alternate stripes upon its head, and the kind of bag under its tail;
its body is also nearly white above and black below, whereas in all
other animals their bellies are always lighter than their backs.
_Engraved for Barr's Buffon._
[Illustration: FIG. 64. _Badger._]
[Illustration: FIG. 65. _Otter._]