206 DR. J. E. GRAY OX MELES CHINENSIS, [Mar. 12, 



elongated, with rings of square scales and short bristly hairs. The 

 skull was broken up ; the teeth are not said to be rooted, or not 

 rooted. 



Saccomys anthophilus. 



Head, shoulders, back, and rump pale fulvous ; pouch and limbs 

 paler ; end of nose beneath reddish white. 



Saccomys anthophilus, F. Cuvier, Mem. du Mus. x. 419. t. 26, 

 1823. 



Hah. North America {F. Cuvier) ; probably some of the West- 

 India Islands (^Spencer Baird). 



5. Notice of a Badger from China {Meles chinensis), sent 

 by Mr. Swinhoe, H.M. Consul at Amoy, and Dr. 

 Hartland from Hongkong. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., 

 V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., &c. 



Mr. Swinhoe has sent to the British Museum, from Amoy, the 

 skin and skull of a Badger, which the British Museum had before 

 received from Dr. Hartland, from Hongkong. It is a very distinct 

 species from the Badger of Europe and Japan ; but the skull is very 

 similar to that of the Badger from Thibet which Mr. Hodgson 

 named Taxidea leucurus — the Meles leucurus of my monograph of 

 MustelidcE in the 'Proceedings' of the Society for January 1865, 

 p. 139. 



But the fur of both the specimens is so different from that of the 

 skin of the Thibet animal sent by Mr. Hodgson, that I believe it is 

 an undescribed species, unless it is the Amur Badger, described as a 

 variety of the European animal by Middendorff and Schrenck. It 

 differs from the European Badger in the form of the skull, and 

 almost justifies Mr. Hodgson referring it to a distinct genus. He 

 first referred it to Mr. Waterhouse's genus Taxidea, but afterwards 

 gave the group the name of Pseudomeles. 



The British Museum contains specimens of the skulls of the Euro- 

 pean, Japanese, Thibetan, and Chinese Badgers ; the three species 

 are most distinctly marked by their skulls. 



Indeed the animals may be divided into two groups, according to 

 the form of the skull, thus : — 



I. Skull ovate, swollen behind ; the forehead and upper part of the 

 nose broad, flat above, and rounded on the sides ; the face short, 

 thick. The flesh-teeth of the lower jaw moderate, shorter than the 

 tooth-line occupied by the three premolars. Meles. 



1. Meles taxus, Linn. 



Skull large ; face very broad and rounded in front ; the nasal aper- 

 ture large, broad, as broad as high, postorbital aperture moderate, 

 subcircular. 



