428 MR. R. I. POCOUK ox Tllli EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 



but it difters in mtvny strnctuial details. The pin'fGrni digital 

 pads are much larger and better defined along their proximal 

 margin, and those of the second, third, and fourth digits are 

 united b_y webbing extending past the middle of ench, these three 

 digits being closer together than the second is to the first or the 

 fourth to the fifth, the latter being nearly at the same level ns 

 the first. Also the entire foot is wider as compared with its 

 length, and thephintar pad is much narrower and does not occupy 

 the whole width of the foot. It is very imperfectly divided into 

 four lobes. The area behind it on the inner (pollical) «ide of the 

 foot is partially overgrown and overlapped by hairs; on the outer 

 side it is naked, and on the naked area a little way behind the 

 plantar pad but towards the middle line is a single, rather small, 

 hemispherical carpal pad, representing the inner or radial carpal 

 pad of Meles. This pad is partly ovei-lapped and, according to 

 Ooues. is sometimes overgrown by hair (' Fur-bearing Animals,' 

 p. 266). 



Similar differences, so far as the lai'ger size of the digital pads 

 and the greater width of the digital portion of the foot are con- 

 cerned, are observable between the hind feet of the two genera ; 

 but the third and fourth digits of Taxidea are not so closely 

 united, there being a definite, though nariow space between the 

 inner proximal ends of the pads. The plantar pad is very 

 ditterent in Taxidea. It is irregularly cordate in sha,pe and 

 about as long as wide, and its lateral margins do not nearly 

 extend to the edges of the feet behind the first and fifth digits. 

 There is, moreover, no trace of metatarsal pads, the hairs of the 

 metatarsal area reaching down to the proximal margin of the 

 plantar pad. 



The Anal and Genital Areas. 



In Meles, as is well known, the anus is sunk in a shallow 

 depression, varying apparently to a certain extent in depth 

 according to the individual. Between this and the base of the 

 tail there is a deep subcaudal pocket, partially divided into a 

 right and left deeper portion by a vertical partition. Ilie 

 inferior margin of this pouch is a transverse lamina, of integument, 

 forming the partition between it and the shallower circumaBal 

 depression. The skin of the subcaudal pouch itself is hairy and 

 glandulai- *, and secretes copiously a sticky but not particularly 

 foul-smelling fluid which stains the surrounding integument and 

 hairs black. The true anal glands do not discharge directly into 

 this subcaudal pouch, but just within the orifice of the anus as 

 in all Mustelidas. I have verified the existence of this pouch in 

 the Japanese Badger (If. anakitma), and, according to M. Edwards, 

 it is present in the Tibetan species (if. leuctirus). It is also 

 present in the Oriental genus Arctonyx, as recorded by Evans in 



* As fiillv described by Chatii>, Ann. Sui. Nat. (5) xix. pp. 106^109, pi. vii. figs. 

 66-67 (1874). 



