650 



APPENDIX 



[No. V. 



Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, believed them to be identical, but in the History of 

 Quadrupeds, they are treated of as varieties of the same species; in this also 

 Buffon agreed, describing the American animal under the name of Carcajou. They 

 were first considered as distinct by Schreiber, whose opinion was adopted by Gmelin. 

 In Buffon's account of the animal, it is represented as having four toes only on its 

 fore feet, whence originated the erroneous specific character given by Gmelin of 

 " Palmis tetradactylis." The descriptions of the several authors are very incorrect. 

 The best method of making the American Badger more properly known as a separate 

 species, will be by an enumeration of the differences between the two. 

 The American Badger is generally less in size and of lighter make ; 



ike ; the head, 



though equally long, is not so sharp towards the nose, and the markings are remarkably 

 different ; a narrow white line runs from between the eyes towards the back, the rest 

 of the upper part of the head is brown, the throat and whole under jaw are white, 

 the cheeks are partly so ; a semicircular brown spot is placed between the light part 

 of the cheeks and the ears ; the white marking extends in a triangular form a little 

 above the eyes, and below the eyes in a line towards the fore part of the mouth, but 

 the whole eye lies within the dark colour of the upper part of the head, which colour 

 runs with a sharp angle at the corner of the eye into the white. ' The European Badger 

 has three broad white marks ; one on the top of the head and one on each side, and 

 between them are two broad black lines which include the eyes and ears ; and the whole 

 under parts of the throat and jaw are black. The upper parts of the body and sides 

 in the American animal are covered with rather long fine greyish hairs, which in the 

 other are darker, coarser and longer ; the under parts in the former are lighter than the 

 upper, in the latter they are darker ; the legs in the first are dark brown and in the 

 other quite black ; and though the animal is of larger size generally, its nails, which 

 are dark, are smaller than the light horn-coloured nails of the American species, and 

 finally, the tail of the European Badger is longer than that of the American. The 

 specimen received measures two feet five inches in length, including the tail, which is 

 three inches long. The animal is abundant in parts of the interior of North America, 

 inhabiting holes in the earth, and having similar habits to its European congener. 





from 



i 



Luscus. Wolverene 



Wolverene, or Quick 



general inhabitant of the northern parts of 



Melville 



America, as far as the Arctic Sea, and from a skull found in 

 to extend its visits beyond the continent towards the pole. Its skin is an object of 

 trade, and forms part of the annual consignments from Hudson's Bay- The anima 

 is well known to naturalists, who first became acquainted with it from the figure an 

 description of Edwards. Two specimens were sent home by the Expedition ; one 



