5 SEPTEMBER 1931, Page 13

If ever a vermin sanctuary should come into existence, thereabouts

is the place to select. An animal that is being persecuted with peculiar unreason in some districts of Wales is the badger ; and his worst enemies are not game-preservers or poultry keepers or any farmers, but (as I am told) preservers of foxes. There used to be a theory that badgers were of active assistance to foxes ; they improved and cleaned the earths. That claim is at least doubtful ; but a naturalist finds it difficult to believe that badgers and foxes cannot flourish together.

W. ElEAell THOMAS.