MELES TAXUS. : 109 
CARNIVORA. URSID £4. 
\ 
L, aUuIN DN 
Nat. size, fossil, Kent’s Hole. 
MELES TAXUS. Badger. 
Meles vulgaris fossilis, H. von Meyer, Paleologica, 1832, p. 47. 
Blaireau fossile, ScHMERLING, Ossem. Foss. de Liége, tom. i. p. 158. 
Wuitsr some of the larger species of Bear have 
yielded to the influence of the last general physical 
changes which the surface of the earth has undergone, 
and the entire genus has been blotted out of the indigenous 
Fauna of Great Britain by the hostility of man, a compa- 
ratively weak and diminutive species of the Ursine family 
has survived both causes of extirpation. The remains 
of a Badger, not distinguishable from the existing British 
species, have been discovered in the caves at Torquay and 
Berry Head, Devonshire, in juxtaposition with the bones of 
the extinct Mammalia, and manifesting precisely the same 
mineral condition, so that no reasonable doubt can be enter- 
tained of their equal antiquity with the Spelean Bear, 
Hyena, and Tiger. Bones of the Badger, as might be ex- 
pected from its habits of burrowing and concealment, have 
