BACC HA BADGE K. 



275 



cannot change the nature of the animals, though it may 

 thin their numbers, and make them shift their localities. 



The fact of the babyroussa being a hunted animal 

 makes it less seen in proportion to its numbers ; and 

 also makes less be known of its ordinary habits. Ac- 

 cordingly, though it may have been known from 

 remote antiquity, its history is still very imperfect, 

 amounting to little more than where it is to be found, 

 and how it endeavours to escape from its pursuers. 

 -(Elian and Pliny mention pigs with four horns, or 

 with two horns on the forehead, and tusks like a wild 

 boar, which comes near to the character of the ba- 

 byroussa ; but they nini/ have meant the four-horned 

 antelope, or the musk animal. 



When alarmed, the babyroussa grunts and squeaks 

 exactly like a pig ; and though it runs more swiftly, 

 it runs pig fashion, by leaps, throwing the whole 

 body into the air at each bound, and labouring more 

 than the proper running animals. When near water, 

 it readily takes to that element for safety ; and it 

 swims well, so that it often voluntarily crosses rivers 

 and estuaries of considerable breadth, and even 

 passes from island to island when they are not far 

 apart. As is the case with the common pig, its swim- 

 ming 1 action is the action of running or leaping, not 

 of walking ; but its blunter hoofs, and especially the 

 greater length of its legs, prevent it i'roin lacerating 

 its throat with the fore-feet in swimming, as pigs are 

 apt to do. It thus bounces away through the water 

 with considerably more safety and speed than the 

 common pig, though from the absence of fat it is not 

 so buoyant. Its long nose, however, enables it to 

 breathe easily, though it floats rather deep ; and it is 

 altogether an animal having much command of itself 

 in the water. Its flesh is wholesome, nutritious, easily 

 digestible, and of agreeable flavour, so that it is much 

 sought after as an article of food. 



BACC HA (Fabricius). A genus of Dipterous 

 insects, belonging to the family Syrphida:, distin- 

 guished from Syrphm by having the abdomen very 

 long, slender at the base, and thickened at the extre- 

 mity. The face has a very slight nasal prominence, 

 the antennae are very short, with the third joint cir- 

 cular. They are found about the borders of woods, 

 settling upon leaves, and alternately elevating and 

 depressing the abdomen. There are six British 

 species , the type being, Bacclia clon^ata, Fabricius. 



BACILLUS (Latreille). ) Two genera of Orthop- 



BACTERIA (Latreille). Herous insects, belong- 

 ing to the family Phasniuhe, and destitute of wings 

 in the perfect state ; in the first the antennae are 

 long and setaceous, in the second they are short and 

 subconical. The species are exotic, residing upon trees, 

 t&the twigs of which they bear so great a resemblance 

 that they have been termed " stick insects" 



BAETIS (Leach). A genus of insects belonging 

 to the -order Neuroptem and family Ephemeridce, or 

 Mayflies. Wings four, tail with two long thread-like 

 filaments. There are nearly twenty British species, 

 many of which have recently been described by Mr. 

 Curtis in the "Annals of Philosophy." These \\. 

 pass the larva and pupa states in the water, from which 

 they then emerge, and undergo a remarkable easting 

 of the skin, after assuming the perfect form, which we 

 shall more minutely describe under another head. 



BACTRIS (Jacquin). A genus of five species of 

 South American palms. Linnaean class and order, 

 Monceda Ilcxandria ; natural order, Palmes. Generic 

 character : spatlui double, flowers sitting. Males, 



Portion of a Baculite. 



calyx three-cleft ; corolla three-petaled ; stamens, 

 from six to twelve. Females, calyx and corolla cylin- 

 drical ; stigmas three, sitting ; drupe one-seeded, 

 three pores, but not starred ; embryo within the pores 

 horizontal. The stems of these palms are made into 

 walking sticks. 



BACULITES (Linnaeus, Lamarck). A genus of 

 shells, as yet only known 

 in a fossil state. Its form is 

 straight, more or less com- 

 pressed, conical and much 

 lengthened, the opposite 

 sides smooth and de- 

 pressed, sutures with lobed 

 dentations, the septse at 

 irregular distances, pierced by a marginal siphon. 

 They sometimes are found of a great size, and are 

 abundant in all parts of Europe. De Blainville 

 places this genus in his 1st class, Cephcdophora ; 3rd 

 order, Pofyt/ialamacea, 1st family. The name ap- 

 pears to have been derived from baculum, a staff. 



BADGER (meles). A genus of plantigrade, car- 

 nivorous animals, of which the leading generic cha- 

 racters are : five cheek teeth in each side of the upper 

 jaw, and six in the under ; the first tooth very small, 

 the second and third pointed, the fourth trenchant or 

 Gutting-on the inner side, the fifth in the lower jaw 

 more so, and the last in both jaws large and tuber- 

 culated in their crown. The incisive and canine 

 teeth are like those of the generality of carnivorous 

 animals, only the middle incisor on each side of the 

 under jaw is inserted farther inward than the one on 

 each side of it, though it slopes outwards so as to 

 range in a line with the others at the crown. 



The animals which the badgers most nearly resem- 

 ble in the system of their teeth are the gluttons (gw/o), 

 but their habits are not the same. The structure of 

 the teeth is, indeed, of that mixed kind which renders 

 it no certain index to the food of the animal. The 

 anterior part of the mouth, as far as the canines, is 

 decidedly carnivorous, and could be applied with 

 much effect in the killing of prey. It very much re- 

 sembles the same portion of the system of teeth in 

 the martens, which, in proportion to their size are 

 among the most bold and deadly of all the carnivora ; 

 but the emallness of the teeth which immediately 

 follow the canines, and the structure of the ones in 

 the rear, adapt the mouth fully more for preparing 

 vegetable substances for the stomach than animal 

 ones ; at all events, the system of cheek teeth is not 

 adapted for bruising the flesh of large animals in the 

 recent state. It is probable that the canine teeth of 

 badgers, like the tusks of the genus sits, are weapons 

 of defence rather than instruments of prey ; and the 

 same may, in part at least, be said of some of the other 

 plantigrade mammalia. 



The classing of plantigrade animals as carnivorous is 

 not quite natural ; and, indeed, there does not appear to 

 be any part of the present system into which they can 

 come with strict propriety. Eating flesh is so far 

 from being their natural propensity, that there are 

 few of them that will kill and eat any warm-blooded 

 animal if they can find other food. This appears to 

 be the case with the bears, which are considered the 

 most fierce and sanguinary of the whole ; and much 

 more is it the case with the badgers. But the plan- 

 tigrade animals an;, in general, quiet and retiring, so 

 that they are seldom seen unless when they are forced 

 out, by natural circumstances, or by direct pursuit ; 

 B B2 



