BADGER BEAR. 221 



28. MELES TAXUS, Bodd. Grafting. The Badger. D. F. 



Body colour white-grey, mixed with black; under 

 part and legs black ; head white, with a broad black 

 band through the eyes and ears on each side. Length 

 2 ft. 6 in., with a tail scarcely so long as the head. 

 Is common in the south and middle of the country, 

 wherever there is a fitting locality ; but does not go further 

 north than Upland. 



Like the bear, the dormouse, and the hedgehog, the 

 badger lies up in its winter quarters till the spring. 



B. Tuberculated teeth, f. 



4 



1. Each tuberculated tooth above larger than the canine; 

 prsomolars widely divided. 



Gen. Ursus, L. 



Head broad; nose thick and blunt ; forehead flat; eyes 

 small ; short pricky ears ; body clumsy ; tail short. 



29. UESUS AECTOS, L. Bjorn. The Bear. F. 



Length about 6 ft. ; height over the withers 3 ft. ; 



ears longer than the tail ; outer and inner toes of the 



same length ; colour brown -black or grey. 



The principal districts in which the bear is now found in 



Scandinavia are the thick forests from the north of Wermland 



to about 69 of north lat., or about the limit of the northern fir 



forests. They pair in August, and the female brings forth in 



her winter ide, or nest, from two to three young ones in 



February. Should the old female prove with young again the 



same year, she does not take her young ones into the ide 



with her that autumn, but finds them another somewhere 



close to her own ide. A good bear will weigh about 



500 Ib. 



Eemains of a fossil bear (Ursus spelceus), which are now 

 dug up in the turf mosses of Scania, prove that in former 

 ages a bear considerably larger than any land bear now 

 extant inhabited the forests of South Scandinavia. 



