130 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
SEMI-PLANTIGRADES. 
These form part of the Plantigrada of Cuvier and part of the 
Digitigrada ; they walk on their toes, but at the same time keep the 
wrist and heel much nearer to the ground than do the true Digitigrades, 
and sometimes rest on them. Of those Semi-plantigrades with which 
we now have to deal there are three sections, viz., the WZustelide, 
containing the Gluttons, Martens, Weasels, Ferrets, Grisons, &c., the 
Melide, Meidide and Melinide of various authors: i.e. Badgers, Ratels, 
and Skunks ; and the Zwfride or Otters. Some writers bring them all 
under one great family, AZwstefide, but the above tripartite arrangement 
is, I think, better for ordinary purposes. ‘To the mind of only moderate 
scientific attainments, a distinct classification of well-defined groups is 
always an easier matter than a large family split up into many genera 
defined by internal anatomical peculiarities. 
Of the Semi-plantigrades at large Jerdon remarks: “ None of them 
have more than one true molar above and another below, which, 
however, vary much in development, and the flesh tooth is most marked 
‘in those in which the tuberculate is least developed, and wzce versa. ‘The 
great and small intestines differ little in calibre, and many of them (Le. 
the family) can diffuse at will a disgusting stench.” ‘This last peculiarity 
is a specialty of the American members of the family, notably the skunk, 
of the power of which almost incredible stories are told. I remember 
reading not long ago an account of a train passing over a skunk, and for 
a time the majority of the passengers suffered from nausea in 
consequence. Sir John Richardson writes: “I have known a dead 
skunk thrown over the stockades of a trading port produce instant 
nausea in several women in a house with closed doors, upwards of a 
hundred yards distant.” The secretion is intensely inflammatory if 
squirted in the eye. 
MELIDIDZ ; OR, BADGER-LIKE ANIMALS. 
This group is distinguished by a heavier form, stouter limbs, coarse 
hair, and slower action; in most the claws are adapted for burrowing. 
None of them are arboreal, although in olden times marvellous tales 
were told of the wolverene or glutton as being in the habit of dropping 
down from branches of trees on the backs of large animals, clinging on 
to them and draining their life blood as they fled. Some of them are 
capable of emitting a noisome smell. The teledu of Java (AZydaus 
melicéps) is the worst of the family in this respect, and almost equals the 
skunk. It is possible that this animal may be found in Tenasserim. 
