88 CARNIVORES. 



burrow, unless they are foiled by the creature digging deeper down and burying 

 himself beneath the upturned soil. Other methods employed in Germany are 

 either digging the animal out by following the course of the burrow, or by boring 

 directly down upon it by means of a kind of gigantic corkscrew. Digging out is 

 also sometimes resorted to in England, but the more common plan is to tie an 

 empty sack, with a running noose round the mouth, in the entrance of the badger's 

 burrow while the occupant is abroad, and then drive him in with dogs. 



The fur and hairs of the common badger are used for the same 

 purposes as those of its American cousin ; but the hairs, being stiffer, 

 are better adapted for brushes. 



It has already been mentioned that fossil remains of the common 

 ' badger are met with in the cavern and other superficial deposits of 

 this country ; and it may be added that they also occur in those of the Continent. 

 Beyond these, however, no fossil badgers have hitherto been met with, except in 

 strata of the Pliocene period in Persia. When our comparatively full acquaintance 

 with the extinct Tertiary Mammals of Europe and Northern India is taken into 

 account, this remarkable absence of the remains of badgers is strongly suggestive 

 that Persia or the adjacent regions must have been the original ancestral home of 

 these animals, from whence they migrated westwards. 



THE MALAYAN BADGER. 

 Genus Mydaus. 



As being the sole representative of the badgers inhabiting the islands of the 

 Malayan region, the curious looking animal depicted in the accompanying illustra- 

 tion may be appropriately designated the Malayan badger. It is known to the 

 natives of Java as the Teledu, while by the Germans it is termed, on account of 

 its evil odour, Stinkdachs ; its technical name being Mydaus meliceps. 



The Malayan badger forms a kind of connecting link between the true 

 badgers and the under-mentioned sand-badgers, having a tail shorter than in 

 the former, while its cheek-teeth are much more like those of the latter. It is 

 a comparatively small animal, the length of the head and body being about 15 

 inches, and that of the stumpy tail only some f of an inch. With the exception 

 of the back of the head, the top of the neck, a stripe down the back, and the tip 

 of the tail, which are whitish, the general colour of the long and thick fur is dark 

 brown, but lighter below than above. There is a kind of crest of long hair on the 

 back of the head and neck. The muzzle is long and pointed, and almost entirely 

 naked in front of the eyes, with the flesh-coloured nostrils obliquely truncated and 

 mobile. The Malayan badger appears to be confined to the mountains of Java, 

 Sumatra, and Borneo, ranging in the former island from an elevation of about five 

 hundred to upwards of seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. In Borneo 

 it is found at elevations of not more than eighty or one hundred feet, and in 

 Sumatra does not ascend above one thousand feet. It is a nocturnal and burrow- 

 ing animal, not uncommon in some districts. 



Horsfield, the original describer of this animal, says that when killed carefully, 



