MELES TAXUS. Ill 



M. de Blainville* cites amongst the fossil bones of the 

 Meles taxm, a portion of a lower jaw from the grotto of 

 Avison, in the department of the Gironde. But the most 

 perfect collection of the remains of the Badger is that 

 described by Dr. Schmerling,-f- in his account of the fossils 

 of the caverns near Liege ; it is there expressly asserted 

 that the bones of the Meles were found under the same 

 circumstances and in the same fossilized state as those of 

 the Ursus spelteus, and other extinct quadrupeds from the 

 same caverns ; and, after a detailed comparison of the fossils 

 with the bones of the recent Badger, the historian of the 

 Belgian bone-caves affirms their specific identity. 



A fossil skull of a Badger in the Museum of the Philoso- 

 phical Institution at York, would seem to carry the anti- 

 quity of the Meles taxus to a higher point than the Cave 

 epoch, and as far back as any species of the Ursine genus 

 has been traced. The specimen is stated to have been 

 obtained from the red crag at Newbourn, in Suifolk, and 

 Professor Phillips has assured me, that it has the same 

 mineralized condition and general appearance which cha- 

 racterise the ordinary and recognised fossils of that mio- 

 cene formation. Should this specimen prove authentic, 

 the Meles taxus is the oldest known species of Mammal 

 now living on the face of the earth. 



My friend Mr. Belli has pleaded the cause of the poor 

 persecuted Badger, on the ground of its harmless nature and 

 innocuous habits; the genuine sportsman will, doubtless, 

 receive favourably the additional claim to his forbearance 

 and protection which the Badger derives from its ancient 

 descent. 



* Loc. cit. p. 47. t Loc. cit. p. 158. J British Quadrupeds, p. 123. 



