Mr. Alfred Ellis, of Loughborough, sent to the Times of
Wednes- day an amusing account of the habits of the badger, which he has managed to domesticate near his house, and to render com- paratively at ease in the neighbourhood of men. It is very useful in one way,—it attacks wasps' nests, being very fond of the wasp's honey. It is also clean in its habits, using the branch of a birch-tree over its earth, a foot and a half from the ground, as a scraper, on which it scrapes its feet in dirty weather, so as to prevent taking the mud into its house. Probably it is Mrs. Badger who insists on that little item of domestic civilisation, but in any case, it shows the good-taste and gentlemanly feeling of the badger to comply with this domestic rule. Mr. Ellis says that the young badgers were on friendly terms with the young foxes, till the mother of the foxes (as we understand him) interfered, to prevent what she deemed a dangerous intimacy growing up, since the little foxes were showing themselves too much with their young companions, and not cultivating the strict seclusion which is essential to the safety of foxes in a fox-hunting country..
Previous page
