before development.1 These remarkable deviations from the usual course of nature
are doubtless due to the unnatural conditions of domestication, for nearly all the
observations of warrantable field naturalists tend to show that Badgers at large
mate in October, and that the young are born in February, March, or April.
Usually the birth takes place in March, very rarely as early as January. So
excellent and careful an observer as S ir A. Pease thinks they go with young for
as short a period as nine weeks, whilst Captain Salvin, who has kept many in
confinement, tells me the period of gestation takes as long as from eleven to
thirteen months.2 Two extremes of opinion are thus entertained, but I am inclined
to think that though many instances may be cited in support of both estimates,
the general rule is that the female Badger goes with young about twenty-two
weeks.8 When she has thoroughly prepared her place of accouchement she gives
birth to two or three young ones, sometimes four, and I have once heard of six.4
These are blind till about the ninth or tenth day, and do not begin to show
themselves at the mouth of the ‘ se t’ until they are about two months old. After
the beginning of June if you have a good stock of patience and a disregard for
the midges, you can see them and the mother nearly every fine evening. In the
management of her cubs the mother Badger is a strict disciplinarian. Unlike the
vixen fox, who lies up at a distance from her cubs as soon as they are able to
take care of themselves, she attends personally to all their wants, comforts, and
safety. In a litter of tame Badgers that I have recently had the pleasure of
observing the mother would every evening take each cub in turn and thoroughly
overhaul its coat for parasites. Grooming each in turn with champing jaws she
turned them over and over with her nose till every part of her offspring had been
successfully explored and thus relieved them of the annoying pests which at that
age they seem unable to destroy. When about to come forth for the evening
ramble the old Badger will often come to the entrance of the hole and there
1 A similar suspension of gestation occurs in the case of the female roedeer. Several writers consider that the
ovum undergoes a period of complete quiescence, i.e. from August till Christmas, after which the fcetus develops
rapidly in the usual manner. This is not, however, correct, as it has been found that the growth is continuous after
impregnation, although very slow.
* Cp. A. H. Cocks, Zoologist, December 1903 and March 1904; also C. Cook, ZoologistJanuary 1904; Meade Waldo,
Zoologist, 1894, p. 221 j J. R. Denwood, Zoologist, May 1894, p. 186; and Zoologist, 1888, pp. 12, 1 3 ; Field, July 10, 1897.
3 Mr. Arthur Heinemann says (Field, March 7, 1903) he has thrice found Badger cubs during the first fortnight in
February.
4 Badgers occasionally produce their young above ground, an instance of which is reported in the Field of April 4,
1903, as follows : ‘ While cutting a very thick gorse covert in Staffordshire on March 30 we found a litter of five Badgers
lying in a shallow nest with no protection beyond that afforded by the gorse bushes. Is not this unusual ? I may add that
there are plenty of strong earths in the neighbourhood used by Badgers.—A. E.’
remain motionless, watching and listening to every sound in the surrounding
woods in case something may be heard that will give a clue to approaching danger.
During this period of precaution she rigidly keeps her family in the rear, and only
when she is perfectly assured that all is safe do the family come forth with a rush.
Mr. T. Dening White in his capital article on the Devonshire Badgers1 sa y s :
‘ I have seen her (a female Badger) turn back and shake severely a cub that
would insist on following its dam away from home, the poor little chap
hobbling a retreat, very injured at heart, stopping to perch on its haunches and gaze
wistfully in the direction its mother had gone.’ I f food is regularly placed
outside the earth, Badgers soon become comparatively tame, and even the old
ones will permit a close approach; but the slightest clumsy movement or unusual
sound will send them scurrying into the burrow, from which they will not emerge
for some time. A good many years ago I used to go in the summer evenings
and watch the Badgers come out of their holes in a disused rabbit warren near
Condover Hall in Shropshire, and I found that with due caution and some patience
I could get very close without causing alarm. At first they would not leave the
neighbourhood of the earth; but as the young grew larger, they would come out
into the wood and run about, though ever suspicious and watchful. On fine
autumn evenings I think that Badgers leave their homes to go for the usual
midnight forage at an earlier hour. Once I was sitting on a bank by the side of
Loch Ness,2 trying to unravel one of those awful messes into which one’s flies
and minnows entangle themselves when the angler’s tin box of fish-lures gets
upset, when I heard a rustling sound in the bracken behind me. Turning round
I expected to see a stag or a roe—for it was in part of the Balmacaan forest—
when a fine old mother Badger, closely followed by her three well-grown
youngsters, came shuffling along looking for roots and insects. They seemed to
be snouting up the ground as they moved, after the manner of pigs', and were
quite unaware of my presence, although I sat within ten yards of them. They
performed a complete circle round the small wood above my position, and then
passed on right over the open moor towards another belt of bushes where I lost
sight of them. To see the Badger at home we must take up our position before
sunset and await the coming of night. The fork of a tree is a good site, as most
animals, Badgers included, never look upwards, and you can see all things
1 Badminton Magazine, July 1903.
* St. John in his Wild Sports and Natural History o f the Highlands, p. 272, gives an interesting account of Badgers he
saw near Loch Ness.
VOL. II.