BADGERS. 83 



Fossil Rateis From the rocks of the Siwalik Hills of North-Eastern India, 



belonging to the Pliocene period, and likewise from formations of 



corresponding age in the Punjab, there have been obtained the remains of ratels 



closely allied to the living species ; so that it may be concluded that India was the 



original home of these animals, and that thence they migrated into Africa. 



THE AMERICAN BADGER. 

 Genus Taxidea. 



The American badger (Taxidea americana) brings us to the first of four 

 genera which may be collectively called badgers, and the whole of which are 

 confined to the Northern Hemisphere. They all have the same number of teeth as 

 in the martens, that is to say, 38, of which f are incisors, } canines, premolars, 

 and J molars on each side of the jaws. All of them have stoutly built bodies, and 

 short limbs adapted for digging ; while, with one exception, the tail is very short. 

 They are further characterised by the unusually large size of the molar tooth of 

 the upper jaw, and likewise by the elongation of the posterior heel of the flesh- 

 tooth of the lower jaw. 



In the American badger the skull is very wide posteriorly, the body depressed, 

 and the tail very short. The skull may be at once distinguished from that of the 

 true badgers by the proportionately larger size of the upper flesh-tooth, and the 

 smaller upper molar, which is triangular in form, with the apex directed outwards. 

 The fore-claws are enormous, the eyes are very small, and the muzzle is hairy right 

 up to the obliquely truncated nostrils. The low, rounded, and broad ears are 

 remarkable for the large size of their apertures. In length the animal, from 

 the snout to the root of the tail, measures about 24 inches, and the tail 6 inches. 

 The general colour of the coarse fur of the body is a blackish grizzle, mingled with 

 either white, grey, or tawny, or the whole of these together, on the upper-parts, 

 while below it is uniformly whitish, sometimes shaded with grey or tawny. The 

 head is darker than the body, with a white stripe clown the middle, and the limbs 

 are blackish brown. 



The ordinary form of the American badger extends from British 



North America, from at least latitude 58, over the greater portion of 

 the United States. Near the Mexican border of the States, as in Eastern and 

 Central Mexico itself, it is, however, replaced by a variety distinguished by a white 

 stripe, sometimes interrupted, running down the back from the nose to the tail. 



In habits the American badger appears to closely resemble the 



common European species, being strictly nocturnal, and living in 

 burrows constructed by itself. In the colder portion of its habitat it hibernates. 

 Although but very seldom seen, Dr. Coues states that these animals live in count- 

 less numbers in the region of the upper Missouri River and its tributaries ; tracts 

 of sandy soil being so full of their burrows as to render travelling on horseback 

 dangerous. These badger -holes can be distinguished from those of the prairie- 

 marmot by their larger size and the absence of a circular mound of earth at their 

 entrance; though many such holes are merely burrows of the prairie-marmot, 



