BADGER TRACKS; LEFT. (SLIGHTLY REDUCED)
It is readily tracked down, and when its hole is approached, the animal frequently exhibits its head as a target from its curiosity to see what is coming. If run into a hole, it will almost invariably reappear within a few minutes. If it offers no chance for a shot, a trap placed at the entrance and covered nicely generally brings about its destruction. If no trap is at hand it can be confined to its hole by tying a piece of paper or a rag to a stick and placing it not less than two feet from the entrance, which will prevent its leaving the hole for twenty-four hours or so. This is a surer method of keeping the animal a prisoner than blocking the entrance, and works satisfactorily also with other marauders that take to holes.
A fox can usually be held thus for several days, and by this ruse I have actually starved two of them to death. There was in each case three entrances, and but one trap at hand, which was in both instances uncovered by the prisoners during the first night.
BADGER
(A) Walking. (B) Running.
As the ground was frozen hard, I did not wish to bother with setting the trap at another entrance, so I left things as they were, after covering the instrument again. But the foxes knew it was there all the same, and did not again try to leave their prison by that exit, and the other entrances were guarded by that fearful specter of paper. Finally each one died about eight feet from the scarecrow—about five feet inside the hole, which was examined daily—one during the nineteenth, and the other during the twenty-second day of their imprisonment. Had the ground not been frozen so hard as it was, the experiment would have been unsuccessful, as each of the foxes would of course have dug out at some other spot. The latter method of escape will be employed by the badger in every case where the trap is not properly covered.