THE BRITISH MAMMALS I THEIR GENERA AND SPECIES. 47 



the broad black stripe through the eye and ear. His head and body 

 rarely exceed thirty inches in length, and his tail is about a quarter 

 as long. He stands about twelve inches high, being rather long on 

 the fore feet. His claws are non-retractile, blunt, and slightly 

 curved. His ears are short, his muzzle pointed, his skull ridged, 

 its height half its length, and the lower jaw so deeply locked into 

 the socket as to defy dislocation. In each jaw he has three molars, 

 a canine, and four premolars, and in the upper jaw he has one molar, 

 in the lower two ; his mouth can be distinguished from that of the 

 marten, which has the same dental formulae, by the upper molar 



BADGER. 

 (Meles taxus.) 



being much larger than the last premolar, and by the lower flesh 

 tooth having a long broad heel. The food consists of almost 

 anything small in the animal way, including insects and wasps' 

 nests, with roots and fruits in addition. It is sought for at night, 

 in the depths of the woods which are the Badger's haunt. The 

 young, three or four in number, are born in a nest of grass laid in 

 the deep burrow known as the " earth," a wonderfully clean, roomy 

 excavation, approached by several subways, in which, during the 

 winter, the owners sleep for three or four months on a bed of 

 dry fern specially gathered for the purpose. There are Badgers in 

 many of our larger woods ; in some they have been introduced after 

 becoming extinct, and the area of distribution includes not only 

 Ireland and Scotland, but much of Europe and Northern Asia. 



Mesoplodon. Plate xxiii. GET ACE A. 



61. bidens, SOWERBY'S WHALE. Beak long, narrow, and solid ; a 



pair of flat pointed teeth in the middle of the lower 

 jaw ; skull crested. 



This Whale is rare everywhere, and particularly so in British 

 waters. In colour it is black above and white beneath, the flippers 

 and tail being black. In length it measures about eighteen feet or less, 

 and it has forty-six vertebras. The dorsal fin is in the hinder third of 



