MELES TAXUS. 



109 



CARNIVORA. 



URSID&. 



Nat. size, fossil, Kent's Hole. 



aru 



Blaireaufossile, 



MELES TAXUS. Badger. 



H. VON MEYER, Palseologica, 1832, p. 47. 

 SCHMERLING, Ossem. Foss. de Liege, torn. i. p. 158. 



WHILST some of the larger species of Bear have 

 yielded to the influence of the last general physical 

 changes which the surface of the earth has undergone, 

 and the entire genus has been blotted out of the indigenous 

 Fauna of Great Britain by the hostility of man, a compa- 

 ratively weak and diminutive species of the Ursine family 

 has survived both causes of extirpation. The remains 

 of a Badger, not distinguishable from the existing British 

 species, have been discovered in the caves at Torquay and 

 Berry Head, Devonshire, in juxtaposition with the bones of 

 the extinct Mammalia, and manifesting precisely the same 

 mineral condition, so that no reasonable doubt can be enter- 

 tained of their equal antiquity with the Spelaean Bear, 

 Hyaena, and Tiger. Bones of the Badger, as might be ex- 

 pected from its habits of burrowing and concealment, have 



