Another Otter met its death in a strange fashion on the riverside railway
that runs between Newcastle and North Shields, being killed by the electric rail.
The Hot was in a thickly populated district four hundred yards from the
river Tyne. The unfortunate beast had tried to creep under the rail and was
electrocuted.1 .
Otters can take distemper. Of this Mr. Harting gives2 two instances, in
which tame Otters died of distemper which they had taken from dogs.
Field, Dec. 3, 1904. 2 Zoologist; January 1894, p. 7.
THE BADGERS
Sub-family Me l in æ
Genus Meles
O n l y one genus of the Melinæ is represented in our islands, and that by only
a single species. The true Badgers are Palæarctic in range. The claws, strong
and curved, are longer on the fore-feet than on the hind-feet ; the animals are
plantigrade. In this genus there are four pairs of premolars in each jaw, one pair
of molars in the upper and two in the lower. The lower flesh-tooth is greatly
developed. The lower jaw is firmly articulated to the skull ; it is impossible to
detach it without fracture.
T h e C o m m o n B a d g e r
Meles meles, Linnæus.
Ursus meles, Linn. ‘ Syst. Nat.’ 12th ed. vol. i. p. 70 (1766).
Meles taxus, Boddaert, ‘ Elenchus Animal.’ voL$','p. 80 (1785) ; Bell, ‘ Brit. Quad.’ 2nd ed.
p. 158 (1874); Lydekker, ‘ Brit. Mam.’ p. 126 (1895); Sir H. Johnston, ‘ Brit.
Mam.’ p. 143 (1903).
Meles vulgaris, Desmarest, ‘ Mammalogie,’ p. 173 (1820).
Meles meles, Oldfield Thomas, ‘ Zool.’ 4th ser., ii. p. 263 (1898).
Local Names.1—Budget (Norfolk) ; Brock (Welsh) ; Grey 2 (Cornwall, Wales) ; Graye (‘ Boke
of St. Albans’); Bawsened-pate, The Pate Broc (Anglo-Saxon); Earth-dog (South of
1 Various origins are assigned to the name of the Badger, but all of these are purely conjectural. That suggested by
Mr. Harting is certainly the most reasonable : ‘ But, in regard to our English word “ Badger,” may it not be a corruption from
the French bêcheur, a digger, from bêcher, to dig? Our language is full of such corruptions from the French, and our
knowledge of the animal’s habits renders the suggestion sufficiently plausible ’ (Zoologist, 1888, p. 4). The earliest name
of the Badger was taxos, of which the modern German Dachs is evidently a corruption, whilst the Latin name of the animal,
meles, may be derived from mel (honey), as indicating the creature’s love of that product. There are many other suggested
derivations of the word ‘ Badger,’ some writers saying it came from the French blaireau, or Low Latin bladtus, whilst others
have traced its origin to the method of catching the animal in sacks or bags—hence ‘ baggers.’ But all these are mere guesses,
and not very good at that.
2 ‘ There is a large family or little clan of people in this neighbourhood [Penzance] whose nickname is “ Badger.” They
are a pugnacious lot, and will never themselves use this word “ grey ” nor permit it to be used with impunity in their
presence. If they want to express the colour grey they use the word “ blue” ’ (Thomas Cornish in Zoologist, 1878,
P- 333)-