THE EUROPEAN BADGER (licks taxi's) is simi lar to the American in size and colors, but dif ferent in dentition and other details. In the ab sence of open plains, it haunts deeply wooded places, and digs a deep chamber, where it spends the winter, and where in spring four or five naked and blind young are produced. It is omnivorous in a wild state, as well as in confinement: fruits, roots, beech-mast, eggs, young birds. small quad rupeds, frogs, snails, worms, and insects, equally constitute its natural food. It has been known to visit a garden for strawberries. It is also fond of honey and of the larvir of wasps and wild bees, for which it digs up their nests, its shaggy hair protecting it from their stings. Its strength and courage are conspicuous. A barbarous sport was formerly practiced. called badger-baiting or 'drawing the badger.' A badger kept in a burrow or a barrel was assailed by dogs, until at last, yielding to superior numbers. it was dragged out, upon which it was released and permitted to go back to its den, to recover itself. and be baited again. This often happened several times daily when the badger was kept as an at traction to a public house of the low sort. The verb to badger, expressive of persevering annoy anee by numerous assailants, arose from this praetice. An 01(1 English name for the animal was 'grey,' and in Scotland and northern Eng land the badger is still called a 'brock' (see Twelfth Night, Act. ii, Scene 5), and is fre quently domesticated. Several closely related species belong to the Asiatic fauna, where, also, arc other relatives of different genera.
The SAND BADGER, or Rms.-tuft (Aretonyr col laris), of Northeastern India and Assam, is a yellowish animal, taller and larger than the common badger, and looking like a small bear.
It is nocturnal and omnivorous in habits, and is considered very fieree. The STINKING BADGER, or TELEDU (1Iydaus melieeps). is an odd little bur rower and insect-eater of Java, with a skunk like power of emitting a powerful stench. H. 0. Forbes says of this animal: "Another slow prowler, the .112lates meliceps, very often made my evening hours quite unbearable by the in tensely offensive odor with which, even in its most inoffensive frame of mind, it hedged its crepuscular walks for at least a mile around . . with a malignant scent that clung to one's garments, furniture, and food for weeks.
. The natives have a superstition that if a man has fortitude enough to eat its flesh he will have become proof against sickness of all kinds." The common HONEY BADGER of India, and the EATEL, or CAPE BADGER, of South Africa, are somewhat more distant relatives, closely allied to each other and forming the genus Mellivora. Their coloration is peculiar, all the upper surface of the body, head, and tail being ashy gray, while the lower parts, separated by a distinct longi tudinal boundary-line, are black. Both are vig orous diggers, and are even accused of robbing graves. Their generic name alludes to their ob served fondness for honey (the ratel really hunts for bees with great sagacity), but they subsist upon living animals. Certain small raccoon-like animals of India and eastward, constituting the genus Helictis, and the Cape polecat (Ietanyx gorilla) of South and West Africa, which is re markably like an American skunk in appearance and habits, complete the group.