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XXIV. On the Skull of the North American Badger, Meles Labradoria of Authors. By 
GeorcE R. WarteruousE, Esq., Curator, and Assistant Secretary for Scientific Business, 
to the Zoological Society. 
Communicated November 13, 1839. 
ALTHOUGH very many of the North American animals bear so great a resemblance 
to those of Europe that they have often been supposed to be specifically identical, yet 
upon careful examination the greater portion of them have proved to be distinct ; and 
in those cases where no good characters have been found, by which certain North 
American and European species can be distinguished, such species are, for the most 
part, inhabitants of the arctic portions of the two continents’. 
The North American Badger is one of those animals which might possibly be re- 
garded as a mere variety of the European species. Cuvier, in the ‘ Régne Animal,’ 
after briefly describing the European Badger, observes, “‘le Blaireau d’Amérique n’en 
différe pas beaucoup ;”’ and although, previously to the publication of the last edition of 
the work in which this passage occurs, Capt. Sabine had carefully described certain 
points of distinction, still it would appear that Cuvier did not consider the characters 
pointed out as very important. 
The collection of the Zoological Society containing several specimens, both of the 
Meles Labradoria and the Meles vulgaris, I was induced to examine their crania; and 
when a skull taken out of one of the skins of the former animal was brought to me, I 
found it so unlike that of the Common Badger, that I thought my assistant must have 
made some mistake, nor was I satisfied until I had myself seen a second skull removed 
from a similar skin. 
I have now before me three skulls of the American Badger, which belonged to animals 
of different ages, young and adult ; their peculiarities I will endeavour to point out. 
The most striking peculiarity in the skull of the Meles Labradoria consists in the 
great expanse of the occipital region, which in width is equal to that of the skull mea- 
sured transversely from the outer surfaces of the zygomatic arches. In the adult ani- 
mal all the sutures are obliterated. 
The general form of the skull is conical, the occipital or basal portion being the 
broadest ; viewed laterally, the outline of the upper surface is most elevated at, or very 
near, the occiput ; thence it runs downwards, with a slightly convex curve, to the nasa! 
' It is probable that North Asia and North America have at some former period been united; and if so, the 
specific identity of certain species, whose constitutions are fitted for the arctic regions, may be thus accounted for. 
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