MUSTELID&. MELIN#. TAXIDEA. 503 
North America, while the two races that are found in Mexico differ 
very materially in their markings and also in color. The burrows 
made by these animals are often extensive, and in loose soil are 
twenty feet or more in length; and as the animal digs with wonderful 
rapidity, it does not take it long to construct such a burrow and bury 
itself out of sight. Badgers are chiefly nocturnal and omnivorous, 
eating mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, fruits, in fact anything they 
may obtain that can be regarded as food. They are very ferocious, 
and great fighters when cornered, but their first idea when an enemy 
appears is to get back to the burrow as quickly as possible, and an 
individual never leaves this haven of refuge unless everything is 
quiet and no enemy in sight. So great is this animal’s strength that 
the largest dog would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pull a 
badger out of his burrow, as it grasps the sides with feet and nails, 
and becomes about as immovable as the walls themselves. It has 
hardly any enemy but man that it need fear, its great strength and 
facility in digging affording it means of rapid escape from any car- 
nivorous beast that dwells in the same region. Badgers hibernate in 
high latitudes. 
Subfam. I. Melinee. 
Large quadrate posterior upper molar; molars in jaws unequal. 
96. Taxidea. Badgers. 
333. KI. p33. yo 
i Creer = ie er 
7 
5 
2? 
fe) 
Waxidea~ Waterh.,- Proc. Zool. Soc., 1838, p. 154. Type Meles 
labradoria Gmelin. 
Body stout, strong, depressed; tail short; upper carnassial longest 
in proportion to other teeth, upper molar triangular, the apex turned 
backward; fore claws very large, strong; skull wedge-shaped, widest 
posteriorly; limbs short, feet sub-plantigrade; anal glands two; sub- 
caudal pouch surrounded by a racemose gland. 
KEY TO THE S@BSPECIES. 
A. White median stripe from nose to tail. 
a. Black interramial spot; under parts of body PAGE 
(DULLES SS Sai Bee et eee ee T. t. berlandiert 503 
b. No interramial spot; under pens of body 
‘eA TRIPE CAVERN ae T.t. mfusca 505 
taxus berlandieri (Taxidea), Baird, Mamm. N. Amer., 1857, p. 205. 
Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm., 1901, p. 321. 
