MELES TAXUS. Waka 
M. de Blainville* cites amongst the fossil bones of the 
Meles taxus, a portion of a lower jaw from the grotto of 
Avison, in the department of the Gironde. But the most 
perfect collection of the remains of the Badger is that 
described by Dr. Schmerling,+ im his account of the fossils 
of the caverns near Liege; it is there expressly asserted 
that the bones of the M/eles were found under the same 
circumstances and in the same fossilized state as those of 
the Ursus speleus, and other extinct quadrupeds from the 
same caverns ; and, after a detailed comparison of the fossils 
with the bones of the recent Badger, the historian of the 
Belgian bone-caves affirms their specific identity. 
A fossil skull of a Badger in the Museum of the Philoso- 
phical Institution at York, would seem to carry the anti- 
quity of the eles tavus to a higher pot than the Cave 
epoch, and as far back as any species of the Ursine genus 
has been traced. The specimen is stated to have been 
obtained from the red crag at Newbourn, in Suffolk, and 
Professor Phillips has assured me, that it has the same 
mineralized condition and general appearance which cha- 
racterise the ordimary and recognised fossils of that mio- 
cene formation. Should this specimen prove authentic, 
the Aeles taxus is the oldest known species of Mammal 
now living on the face of the earth. 
My friend Mr. Bell} has pleaded the cause of the poor 
persecuted Badger, on the ground of its harmless nature and 
innocuous habits; the genuine sportsman will, doubtless, 
receive favourably the additional claim to his forbearance 
and protection which the Badger derives from its ancient 
descent. 
* Loch cits p: 47: + Loe. cit. p. 158. { British Quadrupeds, p. 123. 
