THE BADGER. By Ernest Neal. New Naturalist Monograph No. 1.

1948 1st edition. 8vo (138 x 206mm). Ppxv,158. Colour frontispiece, b/w photographs, maps. Green buckram.

This is the first of the New Naturalist Monographs, and was perhaps the first detailed account of the life of the badger based on meticulous and exhaustive field research. Earnest Neal "has done, in fact, an honest job of natural history observation and deduction in the best English tradition. In the Editors' belief, 'this Monograph is a notable contribution to the biology of a noble animal which, as a member of the British fauna, has had certainly too little regard and perhaps too little respect'." Chapters include; Author's preface - the main problems, and the manner in which an attempt was made to solve them; General features; Classification and distribution; Getting to know the animals; The food of badgers; General behaviour; Hibernation; The musk glands and their uses; Reproductive cycle and associated habits; Development; The annual cycle of behaviour; Badger sets and life underground; The badger of folk-lore and fable; Photographing the badger. Appendices give notes on the author's fieldwork, data on time of emergence from sets and a note on Allelomorphs.