BADGERS. 115 



aud not varieties. It is not altogether a matter of no importance ; for wc shall tiud, more than 

 once, that it depends upon how we regard this point, whether the same species inhabits both 

 Asia and America or not. The Sable and two other species are confined to the limits of Eastern 

 Siberia, where a considerable number of skins are annually taken by the hunters: Radde says 6000 

 to 8000 of the Sable alone. In North America the place of the Sable is supplied to the furrier by 

 the Mink, M. Vison, and by what is reckoned its more valuable congener the litllo black Mink, 

 M. NiGRESCENs ; which, however, according to Mr. Bernard Ross, is nothing but the young of M. 

 VisoN ;* whichever it be, however, there is no fur which approaches so near to that of the famed 

 Russian Sable as it does. A good skin yields the hunter from twenty to twenty-five shillings. 

 Although, however, the Minks replace in North America the Sable of the Old World, so far as 

 the fur is concerned, they are not its true substitute in point of affinity, that being M. lutreola, 

 (which owes its name to its resemblance to a small otter), a European species which is exceedingly 

 rare, in marked contrast to the American species, which in North America, from itg numbers and 

 depredations, is well known to every farmer as the pest of his existence. Nepal, India, and the 

 Indian Archipelago, possess seven or eight sjiecies of Polecat. The Mediterranean and Nile 

 district have two, but Africa proper, that is, south of the Sahara, none. 



There is a peculiar form (Rhabdogale or Zorilla) found in Africa which there supplies the 

 place of the Mustela ; only two or three species of it are known. The genera Gtai.idictis and Galidta 

 have been thought to replace them in Madagascar ; but, as has been alrcadj^ said, these rather belong- 

 to the VlVERRID.^. 



Saxd Bears. (Map 25.) The Sand Bears, composing the genera Helictis and "Mydaus, are 

 pecidiar to India and the Indian Ai'chiiielago. They have some connexion with the Badger, in 

 the form of the head and nails, as well as the style of coloration, and the nature of the hair ; 

 but their teeth and other characters show greater affinity with the Polecats. They are placed by 

 Yan der Hoeven as the transition between them and the Badgers. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who 

 first described the genus with care, considers that it has some analogy with the Coatis, a 

 genus restricted to South America. 



Skunks. (Map 25.) The genus Mephitis, which has the bad pre-eminence of emitting pro- 

 bably the worst and most fetid odour of any beast in all the earth, is entirely confined to the 

 New World, and is represented in North America and South America in nearly equal numbers, — 

 eight in the North and ten in the South. Their appearance sufficiently indicates that they have 

 relations both with the Badgers and the Polecat. They are found all through South America 

 down to the southern extremity of Patagonia, but they do not appear to have crossed the Straits 

 of Magellan into Tierra del Fuego. 



Badgers. There are three species of Badger now known, possibh' five. There is the European 

 Badger, whose range extends from the Atlantic, through Europe and Asia, to the Pacific ; and 

 there are two species in North America, which, although outwardly almost identical in appearance 

 with the Old-world Badger, differ so materially in dentition from it tluit a new genus, Taxidka, 

 has been established for their reception. Iksidcs the European form of tlie Old-world Badger, 



* B. Ross, in "Nat. Hist. Rev.," 1S62, p. 273. 



