File:Brehm's Life of animals - a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia (1896) (20225185710).jpg

Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim1896breh (find matches)
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Pechuel-Loesche, Edward, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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THE MARTEN FAMILY—BADGER. 169 Characteristics The common Badger ('Mclcs taxus or of the Meles vulgaris) attains a length of Common Badger, thirty inches in its body and seven inches in its tail. Adult males may weigh as much as forty pounds in the fall. The fur is rather long, harsh, nearly bristle-like and glossy. Its color is grayish white mixed with black on the back, reddish on the sides ot the body and the tail, black-brown on the under surface and the feet. The head is white, but a faded black stripe runs on each side of the snout, over the eyes and white ears and loses itself in the neck. The females are smaller in size and lighter in color, the whitish woolly under fur coming nearer the surface. White badgers are very rare, and those that are white with chestnut sputs are still more rarelv found. retain its independence to the most complete degree. Its strength enables it to dig out burrows with ease, and like a few other animals leading a subteiranean life it can bury itself in a few minutes. Observations of The Badger spends nearly all its life Badgeis in in this burrow and goes a certain dis- the Wild State, tance away from it only at night. In very solitary woods it may come out for a walk in the afternoon in late summer, and I have met it myself in the daytime, on the Isle of Rugen, but such instances are the exception. Tschudi says: "A sportsman who had the rare chance of observing a Badger in the free state, gives an interesting account of it. He repeatedly visited a Badger's burrow, situ- ated on the edge of a precipice, and which was plainly seen from the opposite side. When the wind
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THE TAYRA. This Brazilian animal belongs to the Marten family, having the long, slender body distinctive of the tribe. The illustra- tion depicts them appropriately in the woods, for thej are arboreal animals, and prey upon Rabbits and other small mammals, birds, fish, etc. The claws are webbed, but they climb well and are very quick ami dexterous hunters. (Galictii bariara.) Home and With the exception of Sardinia and Haunts northern Scandinavia, the Badger is of Badgers, found all over Europe : it inhabits Asia from Syria through Georgia and Persia to Japan, and Siberia as far as the Lena. It leads a solitary life in burrows, which it digs out with its strong, curved claws on the sunny side of hills, provides with from four to eight outlets, and furnishes most comfortably. The round chamber at the bottom, which may be approached through several conduits, is so large that it can hold a soft, large heap of moss, the animal and its young. Few of the conduits are regularly used, most of them serving only as means of escape in danger, or as ventilators. Scrupulous cleanliness is observed throughout, in great contrast to most similar subterranean habitations of other animals. The site selected by the hermit is usually a wood near a meadow, or a meadow on a hill, but always a quiet, solitary spot. The animal is fond of a com- fortable, contemplative mode of life, and likes to was favorable, the hunter softly approached the object and soon saw an old Badger, sitting there sulking and lost in its own tiresome thoughts, but seemingly enjoying the warm sunshine. This was no accident, for he often saw it again on bright days, basking in the sun's rays. It spent its time in com- fortably doing nothing. Either it sat still, gravely looking around, or rocked to and fro upon its fore- legs like a Bear. This comfortable quietude was sometimes interrupted by sanguinary parasites, which it destroyed on the spot with great expedition, after which it would again bask in the sunshine, alternately exposing its broad back or well-nourished abdomen to the warming rays of the sun." During the breeding season the Badger lives with its mate ; the rest of the year it lives alone, holding friendly relations with no other animal. The Fox sometimes forces its society upon it in old and wide- extended burrows, but even then the animals care little for each other, the Fox inhabiting the upper

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