280 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



the dry barren plains on the Yakima Kiver, and also on the 

 timberless mountains between the Yakima and the Columbia. 

 In certain sections of that Territory, as for instance the Sim- 

 coe Valley, the species is represented by Dr. Suckley as so 

 abundant that riding becomes dangerous from the number of 

 the burrows. The writer last mentioned adds a paragraph on 

 the general east and west distribution of the species, as fol- 

 lows : — 



"Found sparingly in the eastern portion of Minnesota; be- 

 ing more abundant near the Missouri. From thence, after 

 entering Nebraska [i. e., the present Territories of Dakota and 

 Montana], it extends almost all the way to the dividing ridge of 

 the Cascade Mountains, near the Pacific coast. Farther west 

 it does not go, at least north of the Columbia. I have seen it 

 in the St. Mary's Valley, at the western base of the main 

 chain of the Rocky mountains, and as far south in Oregon as 

 the vicinity of Fort Boise on the Snake or Lewis river. They 

 are most abundant (north of Utah) in the vicinity of Powder 

 river, Oregon, and the Yakima, one of the northern tributa- 

 ries of the Columbia." 



Hahils. 



The Badger is one of the most secret animals of this country — 

 one whose habits and whose whole nature tend to screen it from 

 observation so thoroughly that much of our knowledge is a re- 

 sult of reasonable inference rather than a matter of actual expe- 

 rience, while some of the most important points respecting its 

 economy remain to be ascertained with precision. As will have 

 been gathered from what has preceded, it lives altogether in 

 holes in the ground, for the excavation of which its whole struct- 

 ure is adapted. Other animals are as decidedly fossorial as 

 the Badger, and like it live underground, but the Badger, un- 

 like its usual associates, the Prairie-dogs {Cynomys) and other 

 Sperraophiles, does not continually appear in view ; rather, it 

 leads a life almost as completely subterranean as that of the 

 Gophers ( Geomys and Thomomyfi)^ or even of the Mole itself. In 

 the colder latitudes, moreover, it hibernates during a consid- 

 erable portion of the year. I have travelled for days and weeks 

 in regions where Badgers abounded, and where their innumer- 

 able burrows offered the principal obstacle to progress on horse- 

 back or by wheeled conveyance, yet the number of Badgers I 

 have actually seen alive, in a state of nature, might be told off 



