CONEPATUS.—TAXIDEA. 85 
towns. When this animal voids the contents of the odour-glands the stench is so 
great that it is perceptible at a distance of many hundred paces; but fortunately it 
only does so when pursued and in danger.” 
5. TAXIDEA. 
Taxidea, Waterhouse, P. Z. 8. 1838, p. 154. 
The American Badger was first generically separated from its Old-World represen 
tatives by Mr. Waterhouse, who pointed out various important dental and cranial 
differences. Among these may be particularly mentioned the great breadth and abrupt 
truncation of the occipital region of the skull, the large size of the auditory bulle, and 
the possession of only thirty-four teeth * instead of thirty-six (or rather thirty-eight +), 
asin Veles. Externally the body is stout and depressed, the tail very short, and the 
claws of the fore feet powerfully developed. 
As will be seen below, only one species of Zarxidea is now recognized by American 
zoologists. 
1. Taxidea americana. 
Ursus taxus, var. 8. americanus, Boddaert, Elench. Anim. 1. p. 136 (1787, descr. orig.)’. 
Meles americanus, Zimmermann, Pennant’s Arktische Zool. i. p. 747. - 
Taxidea berlandieri, Baird, Mamm. N. Am. p. 205 (1857, descr. orig.)*; Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 
Surv. ii. Mamm. p. 21’. 
Taxidea americana berlandieri, Allen, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. i. p. 331°; Coues, Fur-bearing Anim. 
p. 289°. 
? Tlacoyotl seu Coyotl humile, Hernandez, De Quad. Nov. Hisp. fol. 12, cap. xxxvii. 
Texon, Tejon, of Mexicans. 
Hab. Norvn America, from 58° N. lat. southwards 6.—MeExico (Brandt, Mus. Brit.), 
Interior and Eastern States, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas (Berlandier °), Matamoras 
(U.S. Nat. Mus.*). 
The southern race of the American Badger is distinguished by the white facial stripe 
* Dr. Coues has pointed out that Mr. Waterhouse, in his extended paper (Trans. Z. 8. ii. pp. 343-348, 
pl. lix.), gave the dental formula of Tawidea incorrectly, making the lower “ false molars” 2. 2 instead of 3. 8, 
and counting the upper sectorial tooth as a molar instead of a premolar (‘ Fur-bearing Animals,’ p. 262, 
footnote). From the context of Mr. Waterhouse’s paper it is evident that the former error was an accidental 
4 c. 4) pm. = m. p= pa 4 
+ Some confusion has existed as to the dentition of the European Badger, owing to the existence of a small 
deciduous tooth behind each upper canine. This tooth, which is easily lost, and, according to Professors 
Moseley and Ray Lankester, has no predecessor in the milk-dentition (Journ. Anat. Phys. iii. p. 79), is not 
noticed by Fréderic Cuvier, De Blainville, or Owen, but was present in the skull described and figured by 
Blasius (Siugeth. Deutschl. p. 203), who gives the whole number of teeth as thirty-eight. 
‘slip. The correct formula is—i. 
