126 MELINID^. 



** The skull ohlong, elongate ; the forehead and upper 2'xirt of the nose nar- 

 row, subcylindrical above ; face elongate, tapering, rounded in front ; 

 nose-hole moderate, rounded, as hroad as long ; the jiesh-teeth of the 

 lower jaw large, longer than the line occupied hy the three premolars. 

 Pseudomeles, Hodgson. 



3. Meles leucurus. (Tampha or Tumpha.) 



Fur long, flaccid, dark iron-grey, black, grey, and white mixed ; 

 hair long, white, with a broad sublunate black band and a white 

 tip ; under-fur abundant, long, white ; a streak on each side of the 

 forehead blackish-grey-varied ; chin, throat, legs, and underside of 

 body black ; tail, sides of head, and body whitish. 



Taxidea leiicura, Hodgson, Journ. A. S. Benq. xvi. p. 763, t. 31, 1847 ; 



Gray, Ann. Sf Mag. N. H. xii. p. 221, 1853. 

 Pseudomeles leucm-us, Hodgson, MS. 1850. 

 Meles leucurus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1853, p. 191 ; 1857, p. 768 ; 1865, 



p._ 139 ; 1868, p. 207 ; Horsf. Ami. ^ Mag. K H. xvi. p. 108, 1855. 

 Taxidea leucurus, Hodgson, P. Z. S. 1847, p. 116. 



Hab. Thibet, " Bhote Plains : " called Tampha (Hodgson). 



Very like Arctonyx coHaris ; but the fur of the back is longer and 

 more flaccid, and the chin and throat are black, as well as the belly 

 and legs, which is not the case in that animal. The skull is rather 

 more tapering and more compressed than in the European Badger 

 (M. taxus), which it most resembles. 



Consult also Meles alUgularis, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bang. 

 1843, p. 589, which is imknown to me. 



As I observed in the ' Proc. Zool. Soc' 1865, p. 140, the skin is 

 very like that of Arctonyx coUaris, but dififers in the chin and throat 

 being black, and in the black streak on the face commencing on the 

 side of the front of the nose, including the eyes. 



4. Meles chinensis. 



Fur short, harsh, yellow-brown, varied with black and grey ; tips 

 of the breast-hairs rigid, moderately short, yellow, with a narrow 

 black subterminal ring and yellow tip ; under-fur almost entirely 

 absent. 



Streak from end of nose on each side of the face, including the 

 eye, the back of the ears, chin, throat, legs and feet, and underside 

 of the body black ; tail slender, harsh, yellow ; some of the hair of 

 the upper part with a black subterminal ring. 



Arctonyx collaris, no. 206, c, Gerrard, Cat of Pones P.M. p. 98. 

 ? Meles taxus amureusis, Schrcnrli, Anuirliind, xvii. t. 1. f. 1-4. 

 Meles chinensis. Gray, P. Z. -V. l?^(iS, p. i.'()7. 



? Meles leptorhynchus, A. Milnc-Pdwards, Ann. So. Nat. s6v. 5. viii. 

 (not described). 



Hab, China, Hongkong (Br. Hartland), Amoy (H.M.C. Swinhoe). 



The general colouring is so like that of the European Badger that 

 it is probably the M. taxus, var., of Middendorff (N. u. 0. Sibir. 

 Mamm. p. 3), and Meles taxus, var. amurensis, Schrcnck, Amurland, 



