the
hunter instinct so strong in all boys, I ran toward him. He dived into a
den, but the one he chose proved to be barely three feet deep, and I
succeeded in seizing the Badger's short thick tail. Gripping it firmly
with both hands, I pulled and pulled, but he was stronger than I. He
braced himself against the sides of the den and defied me. With anything
like fair play, he would have escaped, but I had accomplices, and the
details of what followed are not pleasant reminiscences. But I was very
young at the time, and that was my first Badger. I wanted his skin, and
I had not learned to respect his exemplary life and dauntless spirit.

In the summer of 1897 I was staying at Yancey's in the Park. Daily I saw
signs of Badgers about, and one morning while prowling, camera in hand,
I saw old Gray-coat wandering on the prairie, looking for fresh
Ground-squirrel holes. Keeping low, I ran toward him. He soon sensed me,
and to my surprise came rushing toward me, uttering sharp snarls. This
one was behaving differently from any Badger I had seen before, but
evidently he was going to give me a chance for a picture. After that was
taken, doubtless I could save myself by running. We were within thirty
yards of each other and both coming strong, when "crash" I went into a
Badger hole _I_ had not seen, just as he went "thump" down tail first
into a hole _he_ had not seen. For a moment we both looked very foolish,
but he recovered first, and rushing a few yards nearer, plunged into a
deep and wide den toward which he evidently had been heading from the
first.

HIS SOCIABLE BENT

The strongest peculiar trait of the Badger is perhaps his
sociability--sociability being, of course, a very different thing from
gregariousness. Usually there are two Badgers in each den. Nothing
peculiar about that, but there are several cases on record of a Badger,
presumably a bachelor or a widower, sharing his life with some totally
different animal. In some instances that other animal has been a Coyote;
and the friendship really had its foundation in enmity and intended
robbery.

This is the probable history of a typical case: The Badger, being a
mighty miner and very able to dig out the Ground-squirrels of the
prairie, was followed about by a Coyote, whose speed and agility kept
him safe from the Badger's jaws, while he hovered close by, knowing
quite well that when the Badger was digging out the Ground-squirrels at
their front door, these rodent