The Badger's Legs

In answer to one of your correspondents, who inquires whether there is any allusion to the inequalities of the badger's legs previous to that made by Sir T. Browne:— "And as that beast hath legs (which shepherds fear, 'Yclept a badger, which our lambs doth tear), One long, the other short, that when he runs Upon the plain, he halts, but when he runs On craggy rocks, or steepy hills, we see None runs more swift or easier than he." Browne's *Britannia's Pastorals*, B.I. Song 5. A.D. 1613.