42 



1823. Taxus labradoricus. Say, Long's Exp., i, 1823, 261, 3ei9. 



1838. Taxidea labradoria, (?) Waterh., P. Z. S., vi, 1838, 154; T. Z.,S., ii, 



1841, 313, pi. 69 (may be the other sub-species). 

 1842. Taxidea labradoria, H. Smith, Nat. Lib., xiii, 1842, 310— Gray, List. 

 Mamm. Br. Mus., 1843, 70.— Baird, M. N. A., 1857, 745 (Expl. of 

 pis.).— Gerr., Cat. Bones Br. Mus., 1862, 99. 

 1867. Taxidea americana, Baird, M. N. A., 1867, 202, pi. 36, f. 2.— Newb., 

 P. R. R. Rep., vi., 1857, 45 (habits).--Coop , N. H. W. T., 1860, 

 77.— Suckley and Gibbs, ibid., 117.— Hayd., Trans. Am. Philos. 

 Soe., xii, 1862, 134 (upper Missouri country). — Gray, P. Z. S., 

 1865, 141 ; Cat. Carn. Br. Mus., 1869, —.—Coop., Am. Nat., ii, 

 1868, 529 (Montana).— Stev., U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr, for 1870, 

 1871, 461.— Allen, Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H., xiii, 1869 (published 

 February, 1870), 183 (Iowa, still numerous) ; Bull. Ess. Inst., vi, 

 1874, 46 (Kansas), 54 (Colorado), 59 (Wyoming), 63 (Utah) ; Pr. 

 Bost. Soc, xvii, 1874, 38. — Ames, Bull. Minn. Acad. Nat. Sci., 

 1874, 69 (Minnesota).— Coues and Yarrow, Zool. Expl. W. 100 

 MerM., v, 1875, 63— Allen, Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv. 

 Terr., vol. ii, No. 4, 1876, 330 (skull).— Jordan, Manual of the 

 Vertebrates, 1878, 19.— Coues, Mon. N. A. Mus., 1877, 263. 

 Distribution. — In 1858, Professor Baird gave the habitat of the Badger 

 as Iowa and Wisconsin to the Pacific coast, *nd from Arkansas to 49° 

 North latitude- There is now no doubt that the animal formerly ex- 

 tended eastward to Ohio. Says Dr. Cones (North American Mustelidse) : 

 " A letter addressed by Mr. Edward Orton, not long since, informs me of 

 its occurrence near Toledo, in that State, about twenty years previously, 

 and of its extinction there." 



The fact of the former occurrence of the Badger and the present occur- 

 rence of the Gray Gopher {Spermophilus franklini), is of no little interest, 

 as it extends the distribution of these strictly prairie mammals to the 

 forest regions of the eastward. The writer recalls the capture of a 

 Badger, in 1857, in Kankakee county, Illinois. Mr. Kennicott has the 

 species among the Mammals of Illinois, in 1853-54 ; and Mr. Allen, 

 writing in 1866, says this species is probably nearly as numerous as for- 

 merly." The prairie-like character of Northern Indiana is continued 

 into Ohio, and should be favorable to the existence ol the Badger and 

 Spermophiles ; and while these animals are eminently characteristic spe- 

 cies of the central, treeless regions of the United States, where they 

 attain their greatest abundance, there is no apparent necessity for doubt- 

 ing the former occurrence of the Badger and present habitat of the Gray 

 Gopher in Northern Ohio. It is scarcely likely that the Gopher was ac- 



