MAMMALS MELINAE TAXIDEA BERLANDIERI. 205 



TAXIDEA BERLANDIERI? 



Mexican Badger. 



Meles labradoria, BENNETT, Pr. Zoo]. Soc. Lend. 1833, 42. 

 ? Taxidea labradoria, WATERHOUSE, Pr. Zoo]. Soc. Lond. 1838, 154. 



Sp. CH. Similar to the common American badger, but with the light line of the top of the head continued, with intervals, 

 to near the root of the tail. 



A skin brought "by Captain Pope from the Llano Estacado differs from all North American 

 ones I have seen in having the white stripe of the top of the head continued backward to the 

 shoulders, then interrupted for two or three inches, then reappearing in the middle of the hack 

 and traceable to near the rump. The hair on the back and the belly appears to have just grown 

 out, as it consists almost entirely of stiff hairs less than an inch long. The hairs on the rump 

 and the sides of the body are as long as usual. The size is rather less than that of the average 

 of Missouri badgers. 



This appears to be the Californian variety of badger referred to by Bennett as gray above, 

 with a continuous vertebral stripe. In the Report of the Mexican Boundary Survey I have 

 described a species as Taxidea berlandieri, from skulls in the Berlandier collection, and manu 

 script descriptions and figures of this same naturalist. The ground color of this species is 

 rather reddish than gray, but I am unprepared to say whether they are the same or not. For 

 the description of the skulls of the Matamoras species, and a full description from the Berlan 

 dier manuscripts, 1 would refer to the above mentioned report. 



List of specimens. 



