The badgers--or "earth-pigs" as the country folk have named them--were
the original occupants of the "set," unless, however, the earliest
excavations had been made by the ancestors of the old doe-rabbit now
inhabiting a side apartment. The foxes and the wood-mouse might have
been looked upon as interlopers, but they often played the part of
scouts and sentinels, quick to give alarm to the tolerant, easy-going
badgers, in case of imminent danger from the visit of a dog or a man to
the neighbourhood of their retreat.

The badgers were more irregular as to the time when they left the "set"
than were any of the other inhabitants. Perhaps they suspected a human
presence, because of some peculiar vibration in the earth through a
false step of mine. Perhaps, during certain conditions of the
atmosphere, a taint--borne from me, on a wave rather than a current of
air, to the wide archway beneath the tree-roots in front of the main
entrance, and then drawn down into the draughty passages--was detected
by them immediately they passed beyond the stagnant atmosphere of the
blind-alley where they slept. Evening after evening, one of the old
badgers would appear at the mouth of the "set," and, with snout uplifted
in the archway of the tree-roots, would stay as motionless, but for the
restless twitching of the alert nostrils, as were the trees and the
stones around his home, while I, not even daring to flick an irritating
gnat from my forehead or neck, would wait and long for the philosopher
in grey to make up his slow-moving mind.

With regard to the badger's habit of staying for some time in the
doorway of his home, it may be mentioned that years afterwards, when one
night I compared my notes with those of a companion who had hidden near
the main opening of the "set" while I had watched by a hole higher in
the wood, I found that each entrance had, simultaneously and for long,
been occupied by a vigilant badger; and, as both animals were full-grown
"greys," I concluded that parent badgers not unusually took ample
precautions against surprise before allowing their cubs to venture out
into the night.

Once away from the "set," the old male badger seemed to lose suspicion
of any obnoxious presence. Then, lumbering after him, every member of
his family would appear in full view on the mound, and, with little fits
and starts of pretended rage and fright, would roll over and over each
other, rush helter-skelter back to the underground