The New Student's Reference Work/Badger

Badger (băj' er), a burrowing animal common in Europe, Asia and America. It is notable for the flatness of its short, clumsy body. Its head is pointed at the snout, its feet armed with long claws, used for digging and also for defense. All badgers have heavy fur marked very distinctly. They are creatures of great strength and courage and wonderful acuteness. Left alone, they are timid and gentle. They live in burrows dug by themselves, are very shy about being seen, usually come forth only at night. The fur is valuable, the hairs used in making artists' brushes. The European badger, unlike the American, is fond of deep woods. Badger-baiting, a low sport once practiced in England, had to do with the arraying of one badger's strength against that of a number of dogs; from this comes the word "badgering," meaning persistent annoying. In Scotland the badger is sometimes domesticated. The American badger belongs to the west, and shows a fondness for open prairie. He is about two feet long, his color greyish with irregular black bands on the back, underneath whitish, throat and sides of the face white, in front of each eye a black patch, legs and feet black. The markings of the face remind one of a clown. With his strong claws he lays open the burrows of prairie dogs, ground squirrels, gophers, field-mice, etc.; feeds on these and on birds, frogs, small snakes, lizards, grasshoppers and other insects. He very seldom shows himself; if ever caught a distance from home will flatten himself "almost like a doormat or a turtle. His long, silky, grey hairs, parted in the middle down along his spine, spread out into the grass on each side, so that he seems to be only a slight hummock in the prairie." (American Animals: Stone and Cram).