43 



cidentally introduced about Middletown, Ohio, as it has been in New 

 Jersey ; or that the Badgers reported to Dr. Coues by Mr. Orton, were 

 escaped members of some traveling menagerie, as in the case of the 

 Texas Civet Cat, Bassaris astuta, recently reported from a locality in Ohio, 

 On the contrary, the eastward range in the United States, to Michigan, 

 Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, of such prairie species, may naturally be 

 accounted for by the general similarity of soil, altitude, and flora of the 

 various regions considered. 



Specific Markings. — The badger is about two feet to root of tail, which is 

 six inches ; the head is about five and a half, and the longest fore-claw 

 one and a half inches. 



The body-coloration above is a grizzle of blackish, with white, gray, 

 or tawny, or all of these ; below, uniform whitish, shaded, or not, with 

 gray or tawny. Top of head darker than other upper parts, with a me- 

 dian white stripe ; sides of head below the eyes, and its under surface 

 white, with a dark patch below the ear; limbs blackish. 



This animal is at once recognized by its stout, thick-set form, flattened, 

 conoidal head, short limbs and tail, broad, flat feet, and enormous fore- 

 claws. The head has short, close, coarse hair, except the black nasal pad. 

 The ears are low, rounded and broad. The eye is small, and high up ; 

 it is a little back of the angle of the mouth. The digits are short, and 

 apparently consolidated above, but showing five closely, appressed oval 

 pads below ; they are shorter than the claws they bear. The second and 

 fourth are sub equal, and longer than the first and fifth, which are mere 

 claw-bearing balls. The back of the hand is hairy to the claws. There 

 is a single large, irregular palmar pad, separated by a deep furrow from 

 the closely apposed digital naked bulbs. The claws are compressed, 

 arched, with rounded ridge and short edge underneath, blunted with use. 

 The three middle ones are about equal in length, longer and stouter than 

 the lateral ones ; these last are sub-equal, and reach about half-way to 

 the ends of the middle claws ; they are more compressed and weaker ; 

 the inner is quite short, thin, and falcate. Their strong-clawed fore-feet 

 adapt them to their eminently fossorial habits. 



Tbe hind-feet are much like the front, but are . decidedly smaller, par- 

 ticularly the claws. The foot is about four times as long as broad, hairy 

 above and below more than half-way from the heel to the ends of toes. 

 The claws are less compressed than in front, and are not, like the fore- 

 claws, sharp edged along the median line, but are deeply excavated be- 

 neath, sometimes so much as to be simply a thin shell of horn, the edges 

 of which unite only at the base of the claw. The short, broad tail 

 meets the tapering body much as in the Porcupine, not being sharply 



