big dor-beetles, as plentiful there as in the
grass-clumps of the open pasture, were easily struck down while they
circled, droning loudly, about the heaps of refuse near the hedge.

Once, late in July, when the badgers were busily catching beetles by the
side of the cattle-path, Brock, thrusting his snout into the grass to
secure a crawling insect, chanced to hear a faint, continuous sound, as
of a number of tiny creatures moving to and fro in a hollow beneath the
moss-covered mound at his feet. He listened intently, his head cocked
knowingly towards the spot whence the sound proceeded; then, scratching
up a few roots of the moss, he sniffed enquiringly, drawing in a long,
deep breath, at the mouth of a thimble-shaped hole his sharp claws had
exposed.

Unexpectedly, and without the help of the dam, he had discovered a
wild-bees' nest. His inborn love of honey was every whit as strong as a
bear's, and he recognised the scent as similar to that of insects known
by him to be far more tasty than beetles; so, without a moment's
hesitation, he began to dig away the soil. The nest was soon unearthed,
and the little badger, completely protected by his thick and wiry coat
from the half-hearted assaults of the bewildered bees, greedily devoured
the entire comb, together with every well-fed grub and every drop of
honey the fragile cells contained. His eagerness was such that these
spoils seemed hardly more than a tempting morsel sufficient to awaken a
desire for the luscious sweets of the wayside storehouses. He carefully
hunted the hedgerow, as far as a gate leading to a rick-yard, and at
last, close to a stile, found another nest, which, also, he quickly
destroyed.

Henceforth, till the end of August, there were few nights during which
he did not find a meal of honey and grubs. The summer was fine and warm,
a lavish profusion of flowers adorned the fields and the woods, and
humble-bees and wasps were everywhere numerous. As if to taunt the
badgers with inability to climb, a swarm of tree-wasps lived in a big
nest of wood-pulp suspended from a branch ten feet or so above the
"set," and, every afternoon, the badgers, as they waited near the mouth
of their dwelling for the darkness to deepen, heard the shrill, long
continued humming of the sentinel wasps around the big ball in the
tree--surely one of the most appetising sounds that could ever reach a
badger's ears. But the wasps that had built among the ferns near the
river-pa