CHAP. 58.—BADGERS AND SQUIRRELS.
The badger, when alarmed, shows its fear by a different
kind of artifice; inflating the skin, it distends it to such a
degree, as to repel equally the blows of men and the bite of
dogs.[1] The squirrel, also, has the power of foreseeing storms,
and so, stopping up its hole at the side from which the wind
blows, it leaves the other side open; besides which, the tail,
which is furnished with longer hair than the rest of the body,
serves as a covering for it. It appears, therefore,[2] that some
animals lay up a store of food for the winter, while others
pass the time in sleep, which serves them instead of food.
1. This statement respecting the "meles," or badger, as well as what is
said of the prescience of the squirrel, is without foundation. There has been some difference of opinion respecting the identity of the animal, which
Pliny calls "meles;" by some it has been supposed to be the polecat, or
else the weasel.—B.
2. This bears reference to what is said of bears in c. 54, and of Alpine
mice and hedgehogs.