, which I
transcribe. "Two persons (in France) went on a journey, and passing
through a hollow way, a dog which was with them, started a badger, which
he attacked, and pursued till he took shelter in a burrow under a tree.
With some pains he was hunted out and killed. Being a few miles from a
village, called Chapelletiere, they agreed to drag him thither, as the
commune gave a reward for every one which was destroyed; besides which
they proposed selling the skin. Not having a rope, they twisted some
twigs, and by turns drew him along the road. They had not proceeded far
when they heard the cry of an animal in seeming distress, and stopped to
listen, when another badger approached them slowly. They at first threw
stones at it; notwithstanding which, it drew near, came up to the dead
animal, began to lick it, and continued its mournful cry. The men,
surprised at this, desisted from offering any further injury to it, and
again drew the dead one along as before; when the living badger,
determined not to quit its companion, lay down on it, taking it gently
by one ear, and in that manner was drawn into the midst of the village;
nor could dogs, boys, or men induce it to quit its situation, and to
their shame be it said, they had the inhumanity to kill the poor animal,
and afterwards to burn it, declaring it could not be no other than a
witch."

Professor Bell had a badger which followed him like a dog, and which had
been tamed when quite young by some cottager's children, with whom he
played like a puppy. As he grew in years, he became too rough for them,
but at Mr. Bell's was a universal favourite. He yelped with a peculiar,
sharp cry when excluded from his master's presence. He was fed at
dinner-time, and took the morsels in the most orderly manner. He was
very affectionate, good-tempered, and cleanly. He died of a disease
which affects many carnivorous animals in confinement--a contraction of
the lower opening of the stomach, which prevents the food from passing.

In that most interesting book, written by Mr. St. John, and called "Wild
Sports of the Highlands," the author treats at some length of the
badger. I select the following passages from his pages:--

"I was just then startled from my reverie by a kind of grunt close to
me, and the apparition of a small, waddling, grey animal, who was busily
employed in hunting about the grass and stones at the edge of the loch;
presently another and another appeared in a little gr