TAXIDEA AMERICANA BERLANDIERI. 289 



gray, tawny, black, and white, the colors ringed in alternation 

 on individnal hairs. The gray predominates, the general 

 "tone" or effect being a grizzled gray, which has given rise 

 to the well known adage, " as gray as a Badger". 



The Mexican Badger. 



Taxidca americaiia berlandieri. 



31eles labradorla, Bennett, P. Z. S. 1833/42 (" California ". Vertebral stripe continuous).- 



Bich. Zool. Beechey's Voy. 1839, p. 9*. 

 ?Taxiclea labradoria, Waterh. P. Z. S. 1838, 154. 

 Taxidca berlandieri, Baird, M. N. A. 1857, 205, pi. 39, f. l.—Bd. Mex. B. Surv. ii. pt. ii. 1859, 



Maium. 21. 

 Taxidea americaiia var. californica, Gray, P. Z. S. 1865, 141 (from Bennett) ; Cat. Cam. Br. 



Mus. 1869, p. — . 

 Taxidca americana var. berlandieri, Gray, P. Z. S. 1865, 141 (from Baird); Cat. Caru. Br. 



Mus. 1869, p. — . 

 Taxidea americaiia subsp. berlandieri, Allen, Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr. vol. 



ii. no. 4, 1876, 331. 

 Meles tlacoyote, Berl. MSS. ined. 

 Tlalcojotl, Nahuatl. 

 Tlacoj'Otl, ''Fernandez.'' 

 Tlacoyote, Mex. Yulg. 

 Texou or TejOU, Mex. (cf. Taxus, Tasso, Toisson). 



Hab. — Southwestern border of the United States and southward. Llano 

 Estacado, Texas, Po2)e; Canton. Burgwyn, N. M., Irwin; Cape St. Lucas, 

 Xantus. "Interior and Eastern States of Mexico, especially Nuevo Leone 

 and Taraaulipas. — {Berlandier, MSS.) 



SuBSPECiFic CHARACTEKS.— Similar to T. americana, but with a white 

 dorsal stripe, sometimes interrupted, from nose to tail. 



General remarks. 



The extreme manifestation of this form of Taxirlea which I 

 have seen is exemplified in a specimen in the Smithsonian 

 Museum, collected at Cape St. Lucas by Mr. John Xantus. 

 Here the white frontal stripe is remarkably broad, nearly 

 equalling in width the dark part of the head, and it continues 

 uninterrupted thence to the tail as a sharp white vertebral 

 line. This is a conspicuous character, and, were it constant, 

 there would need be no hesitation in recognizing a second 

 species, even in default of correlated difference from T. ameri- 

 cana. But it is not constant; on the contrary, other speci- 

 mens show various degrees of interruption of the white dorsal 

 line. Thus, the one from Texas noticed by Prof. Baird in the 

 works above cited shows a prolongation of the white frontal 



19 M 



