Part 9

At night in January the scream of the vixen or she-fox, may be heard in appropriate places, and the yelping bark of the dog fox in answer to her invitation. About April the Vixen produces her litter of about four blind whelps. She is a model mother, unremitting in attention to their wants and education. They are without sight until ten days old. When nearly a month old they are taken out one night for exercise, and if suitable cover is found in the wood or on the moor among the heather, they may not return, though the vixen remains with them and teaches them hunting until the autumn, when the family party breaks up, each member going his or her own way; though they will not be fully grown until another year has passed. In fox-hunting countries artificial burrows are constructed in suitable places, of earth and stone, of which the expectant-mother vixen will avail herself. These are furnished in order that the cubs may be dug out with ease when they have reached a proper age for the huntsman's purpose.

The Fox is credited with resorting to a species of hypnotism to attain his ends. Seeing a party of rabbits feeding, and knowing that they will bolt to their holes on his approach, he starts rolling about at a safe distance to attract their attention; then like a kitten he will begin chasing his tail, whilst the silly rabbits gaze, spellbound, on the performance. At it the Fox continues without a pause, as though oblivious to the presence of spectators; but all the time he is contriving to get nearer, until a sudden straightening of his body enables him to grab the nearest rabbit in his jaws.

The Foxes of the northern hill country are a finer race than those of the southern woodlands. This, of course, is due to the fact that every man's hand is against them, and it is only the individuals of great cunning and superior physique that survive to continue their kind.

Dental formula: i 3/3, c 1/1, p 4/4, m 2/3 = 42.

*Badger* (Meles taxus, Boddaert).

In the old forestal days of Britain the Badger, Brock, Bawsen or Grey must have been a common beast. Like the Beaver--also a former British beast--he has left indelible marks in place-names, such as Brockham, Brockenhurst, Brockley, Brockholes, and many more. In the present day, by the majority of people, the Badger would be regarded almost as one of the extinct native fauna, only to be read of in books. But it is very far from being extinct; and the London naturalist who is determined to see it may have his wish gratified with a journey of no more than five and twenty miles, possibly less. It must be remembered, however, that the Badger is even more nocturnal in his habits than the Fox, retiring at dawn to his "set" deep in the earth, where he sleeps until dusk. This underground hollow may be ten feet or more below the surface, and besides the entrance slope it may have several passages and upper galleries, with probably a back door at some distance from the main entrance. In front of this aperture, and partly hiding it, is a mound of earth that was turned out when the excavation was made, and the size of this mound may be taken as an indication of the depth and extent of the habitation. It is no unusual thing for some of the upper passages communicating with the entrance to be tenanted by Foxes and--Rabbits! The proximity of the Badger's "set" may be ascertained sometimes, when rambling through the woods, by coming across a beech or birch tree whose smooth bark is scored vertically, and an idea of the size of the Badger may be obtained by noting the length of these marks. They are caused by the Badger "up-ending" and stretching his limbs to the full extent whilst he cleans and sharpens his claws, as the domestic cat does hers on a table leg. The scores of the Badger cubs may be found there also.

The rough-coated Badger measures from two and a half to three feet long, and stands about one foot at the shoulder. At a little distance he appears to be of a uniform grey colour, but more closely he is seen to be reddish-grey above and black beneath. The body is stout and broad, the muzzle pointed; the ears short, and tail 7 to 8 inches long. The soles of the feet are naked, and the claws of the forefeet are larger than those of the hind feet. His weight may be anything up to 40 lbs. The Badger is by no means particular as to the nature of his food: he is a general feeder, and most things appear to be to his liking, whether young rabbits, voles, hedgehogs, birds that have dropped from the nest, mice, snakes, lizards, grubs of wasps and humble-bees, for which he will rout out underground nests, and beetles from under bark or among decaying leaves. On the vegetable side he is known to hunt for fleshy roots, to pick up acorns and other fruit, and C. St. John found he had a liking for the bulbs of the Bluebell--that is to say, he frequently found them about the Badger's holes.

The female prepares a special lying-in chamber well furnished with moss and grass, and there in spring or summer the young cubs or "earth-pigs," three or four in number, are born blind and helpless. These are at first a silver-grey colour, but later they become dull brownish-yellow and finally darker blue-grey, when the characteristic black and white stripes appear on the cheeks. The blue-grey tint harmonises with the half-tones of the wood late in the evening, and the strong contrast between the black and white stripes fits in with the lights and shadows of the moonlit wood. The Badger is not a sprinter, and little of his animal food is obtained by running it down. The birds, voles, and rabbits he captures are mostly sickly or wounded, and he has been known to visit regularly, night after night, the ground under a rookery, in order to pick up luckless squabs that have fallen from the nests. He is said to be clever in springing traps without being caught, by the heroic plan of rolling upon them, and then walking off with the bait. His ordinary gait and form suggest the bear; and for many years naturalists classed him among bears, but his affinities are now known to be with the Otter and the Weasels. He is exceedingly clean in his personal habits, and to prevent defilement of his "set," digs pits in the neighbourhood for offensive waste.

If an ascertained Badger "set" be watched in the late evening, the occupant may be seen to put out his head and, elevating his snout, sniff at the air to ascertain whether it bears any enemy taint. If all is well the Badger emerges, perhaps followed by the cubs; and they follow the well-worn tracks that their feet have hardened, and hunt for food. St. John says: "Eggs are his delight, and a partridge's nest with seventeen or eighteen eggs must afford him a fine meal, particularly if he can surprise and kill the hen-bird also; snails and worms which he finds above ground during his nocturnal rambles are likewise included in his bill of fare."

In winter the Badger retires to a specially deep chamber, excavated below the nursery apartment, and prepared in autumn by bedding it with fallen leaves which ferment and keep up a moist warmth. The passages are blocked to keep out unwelcome visitors as well as cold, and when the cold renders food scarce the family retires and settles down to a long sleep. In any short spell of mild weather the Badgers will emerge and see what is to be picked up. The cubs taken young are easily tamed, and in response to kind treatment show a considerable amount of attachment to their owners. Happily for our national reputation, the brutal custom--it was called a "sport"--of badger-baiting has long been a thing of the past. Commending itself, as it did, very strongly to certain elements in our society, it is probable that it may have continued much longer but for the growing difficulty in obtaining victims.

The Badger's dental formula is: i 3/3, c 1/1, p 4/4, m 1/2 = 38. The minute first premolar in each jaw is frequently shed early, and may be missing from any adult skull examined.

Although the Badger is a distinctly local species, it is widely distributed in Britain and Ireland. In the latter country, where it is common, Badger hams are not an unknown delicacy in rustic larders. In Europe it extends from the south of Sweden to Italy.

*Otter* (Lutra vulgaris, Erxleben).

The Otter is by no means the nearly extinct beast that is commonly imagined; but he who would see it in a wild state must seek it by night along the banks of remote streams or tarns, where there are alder-holts, or in the neighbourhood of the East Anglian Broads. It may sometimes be found by day, by searching the caves on some remote part of our coast where the cliffs are rocky and the shore strewn with boulders. Even so near the congested haunts of men as the upper Thames, Otters are occasionally trapped.

If one has the good fortune to get a good view of the Otter in such places it will be found to be a very different creature from the specimens in zoological gardens. The long, lithe body, clad in fine smooth fur and ending in the long thick tapering tail, gives it a very graceful appearance in the water; and, of course, it is a most expert and agile swimmer. The head is broad and flattened from above, the face short, the black eyes small but bright, and the short, rounded ears hairy. The ears are closed when under water. The legs are short and powerful, and all the feet are completely webbed. There are five toes on each, with short pointed claws, those of the hind feet flat and nail-like. The tail is somewhat flattened from the sides, and forms a most efficient rudder. Below its thick base there is a pair of glands which secrete a fetid fluid. The fur is of two kinds: a fine, soft, under-fur of whitish-grey with brown tips, among which are interspersed longer, thicker, and glossy hairs. Water does not penetrate the under-fur. On the upper parts and the outer sides of the limbs, these longer hairs, which have a grey base, have rich brown ends; but on the cheeks, throat, and under parts they are brownish-grey. At a little distance it appears to be of a uniform dusky brown tint. White, cream coloured, and spotted examples are on record.

The total length is about four feet, of which about one-third is tail. The weight of a full-grown male is between 20 lbs. and 25 lbs., but occasionally it exceeds 27 lbs.--Pennant records one of 40 lbs.! The female weighs less than the male by about four pounds. The dental formula is: i 3/3, c 1/1, p 4/3, m 1/2 = 36. The molar teeth have sharp tubercles on the crown.

Where the presence of Otters is suspected, a keen look-out should be kept for their footprints--known as "seal" or "spur" (spoor)--on moist ground, which may help us to find its "holt" or lair, which will probably be a hole in the bank with the entrance under water and overhung by alders and rank herbage. There may also be an alternative way in at the back of the bank above water. Here the Otter rests secluded in the daytime, coiled up like a dog with its tail around its face. The "spraints," or droppings, are also a good clue for the observer. A short distance in from the mouth of the tunnel, a side-chamber will be found, which is the family midden.

About the time of sunset the Otter wakes up, utters his flute-like whistle, enters the water, and hunts favourite pools in the stream for fish, which it secures by diving below them. These are always brought to the bank to be consumed. The backbone is first bitten through behind the gills; and where fish are large (salmon) and plentiful the Otter often contents himself with a mouthful from the shoulder. At other times he may eat methodically from this point to the tail, which is always left. Apart from the fact that he has to make frequent visits to the surface in order to breathe, he is as much at home in the water as a fish, swimming in circles where the water is deep, and his movements in that element are as graceful as those of the fishes he pursues. Not that his diet is restricted to fish: he is very fond of the river crayfish, and will turn over every stone in his section of the stream in his search for them. He is known also to consume frogs, which he carefully skins before eating them. Occasionally he indulges in wild duck or moorhen; and when he hunts on shore may catch a rabbit unawares, a rat or a vole. When he goes down stream he floats with the current his forelegs pressed against his sides and only the upper part of his head with eyes, ears, and nostrils exposed.

In summer when the water is low in the streams, he travels across country from pool to pool by night, seeking some estuary or the open coast. Although so obviously adapted for an aquatic life, the Otter can travel with speed on land, and it has been estimated that in one night it will cover about fifteen miles. On arrival at the coast it will seek some bat-haunted cave that has been favoured by its kind for generations, and will work the shallow waters for flat fish, bass, crabs, and mussels. From here also it will make excursions over a considerable area of neighbouring country by means of the creeks and marshes. In autumn it will return to its favourite stream and feed royally on migrating eels that are on their way to the sea. It does not hibernate. In winter when fishing may be poor, it may be constrained to dig out the mole and the vole from their underground retreats to provide a meal, and is even glad of hibernating insects, either in the larval or pupal condition. It also shows a fondness for the freshwater mussel (Anodonta cygnea).

In the rutting season there is a good deal of desperate fighting between jealous males; but this business disposed of a nursery nest or "hover" is constructed of rushes and grass, and lined with the soft, purple flower panicles of the great reed. Here, in the winter, the bitch Otter brings forth her two or three blind young. They are already covered with a fine downy fur. Both parents hunt to provide them with food, and in due course they are taken out one night to be taught the way of life in the waters. The partnership of the parents is only temporary, and as soon as the young ones are capable of taking care of themselves, the old dog Otter goes to live by himself. The mother remains with her family until the rutting season returns, when she also departs to find another mate. In Norfolk the nursery is frequently found on the surface, in the great reed-beds.

The chief enemy of the Otter is the river-keeper on waters that are preserved for fishing, who has always his traps set for them. This is somewhat strange when it is remembered that the Otter is also an animal of the chase, packs of Otter-hounds still being kept like fox-hounds in certain districts, though the packs are by no means so numerous as in former times. The flesh of the Otter is rank and fishy-flavoured, and therefore not in demand for human food; but there are many records showing that it has been esteemed for use on days when the rules of the Church permitted fish only to be eaten, the clerical casuists easily finding that as it spends most of its active life in the water and has a fishy taste, it must be a kind of a fish! Readers of dear old Izaak Walton will remember the Otter-hunter's reply when Piscator asks him whether he hunts a beast or a fish. The Huntsman says--

"Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you; yet I leave it to be resolved by the College of Carthusians, who have made vows never to eat flesh. But I have heard the question hath been debated among many great clerks, and they seem to differ about it; yet most agree that her tail is fish; and if her body be fish too, then I may say that a fish will walk upon land (for an Otter does so), sometimes five or six or ten miles in a night."

More recently Pennant says he saw an Otter in the kitchen of the Carthusian monastery near Dijon, being prepared for dinner.

There have been many cases of tame Otters who hunted streams for fish for the benefit of their owner, to whom they return on hearing a whistle or other signal. Some years ago an interesting account appeared in The Field of an Otter whelp that had been mothered by an Otter-hound, afterwards hunting its own kind with the pack.

*Pine Marten* (Mustela martes, Linn.).

The Pine Marten or Marten Cat was formerly quite a common woodland beast, but owing to the onslaughts of the gamekeeper and the high prices paid for a skin, it is now, so far as southern and midland England is concerned, extinct. In the wilder parts of the Peak district, the North of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, however, it still exists, though in small and ever decreasing numbers in most places. In the Lake District it was quite recently reported to be fairly common even. The name Pine Marten is a misnomer in so far as it indicates that the animal is at all restricted to pine woods; and it is probable that in the past it led to confusion, for in all the natural histories published up to a late date in the nineteenth century, Britain was credited with an additional species, the Beech Marten (Mustela foina). The two species are much alike, and the practice appears to have been to record those found in pine woods as M. martes and those in other woods as M. foina! Bell, indeed, though he expressly states his disbelief in our possession of two species of Marten, refers to the white-throated form as the Beech Marten or Common Marten and says it is more frequently met with than the yellow-throated form or Pine Marten. The truth is that there is a white-throated Mustela foina in Europe and Asia, but it does not reach northward so far as Sweden, Norway, or the British Isles. The white examples found in this country are old animals from which the yellow tint has faded.

The Pine Marten may be described as resembling roughly the better known Polecat, but with longer legs, a broader, more triangular head with sharp-pointed muzzle, and a longer, more bushy tail. Its entire length is between twenty-five and thirty inches, of which from nine to twelve inches are contributed by the tail. Its colour is a rich dark brown, except on the throat and breast which vary from orange through yellow to creamy-white. The middle of the back and the exposed sides of the legs and feet are darker than the rest, whilst beneath the tint approaches grey. The superficial colour is provided by the long upper, glossy fur, but beneath this is a finer, softer fur of shorter reddish-grey hairs tipped with yellow. The eyes are large, black, and prominent, the ears broad, open, and rounded at the tips. Like all the other members of the family Mustelidæ, the Marten is provided with glands near the base of the tail. It is these which enable the Skunk and the Polecat to disgust their enemies; but in the case of the Marten the secretion is merely of a musky odour and not objectionable; in consequence one of its old English names was Sweet Marten to distinguish it from the Foulmart or Polecat.

The habits of the Pine Marten are mainly arboreal, for which the long slender body and sharp long claws specially fit it, whilst the long bushy tail is useful as a balancer in negotiating slender branches in the pursuit of birds, or in reaching their nests for eggs. All the same, the Marten is at times very active on the ground where he destroys rats, mice, voles, rabbits, hares, game-birds, and domestic poultry large and small. He is even accused of attacking lambs and stealing trout from the fishing boats. He has also a taste for bilberries, strawberries, cherries, and raspberries; and C. St. John tells an interesting story in this connection which illustrates the Marten's cleverness in hiding. He says: "I saw in my garden in Inverness-shire that some animal came nightly to the raspberry bushes; the track appeared like that of a rabbit or hare, but as I also saw that the animal climbed the bushes, I knew it could be neither of these. Out of curiosity, I set a trap for the marauder; the next morning, on going to look at it very early, I could see nothing on the spot where I had put my trap but a heap of leaves, some dry and some green; I was just going to move them with my hand, when I luckily discovered a pair of bright eyes peering sharply out of the leaves, and discovered that I had caught a large Marten, who, finding that he could not escape, had collected all the leaves within his reach, and had quite concealed himself under them. The moment he found that he was discovered, he attacked me most courageously, as the Marten always does, fighting to the last. I had other opportunities of satisfying myself that this animal is a great fruit-eater, feeding much on the wild raspberries, and even blackberries, that grow in the woods." It also robs beehives of their honey.