44 



separated at its base from the body ; the long, coarse hair of the body 

 covers it thickly; the end is obtusely rounded. The colors vary greatly 

 ,with age, season or condition of pelage, from the pattern already given ; 

 this variation is mostly in the relative amounts of the whitish and 

 grayish shades which produce the grizzle. The color-markings of the 

 head are quite uniform; the top is dark-brown, or blackish, decreasing 

 in intensity and purity from the snout to the nape, where it blends with 

 the grayish from behind. This dark top area is split by a sharp white 

 or whitish median stripe from snout to nape; this stripe is constant, 

 though varying in length and width. The extreme muzzle is dark on 

 the sides; the white of the chin and throat extends up opposite the 

 canines to the white ears, only interrupted by a dusky patch anterior t© 

 the ear. The feet are dark brown or blackish, the claws, especially the 

 front, light colored. The body-colors vary under climatic influences 

 from the whitish or dirty, yellow-tinged specimens from the dry, inte- 

 rior region, to the fulvous or tawny-tinged specimens, mixed with much 

 nearly pure black, from the well watered regions of the Pacific slope and 

 eastern border of the great central plateau; these two forms grade in- 

 sensibly into each other. 



None of the specimens here described have the median white stripe 

 continued back of the nape, as in the Mexican badger (T. americana, var. 

 berlandieri, Gray)^, which has the white dorsal stripe extendi.ng, though 

 sometimes interrupted, from the nose to the tail. 



History. — The early history of the Badger is involved with the Euro- 

 pean species, Meles taxus, and with the Woodchuck, Arctomys monax, by 

 Kalm, and with an Albino Raccoon, the Meles alba of Brisson. Buffon 

 doubted if the Badger inhabited America. Boddaert, in 1784, designated 

 it aa Meles taxus, var. americana. Zimmerman adopted the name M. ameri- 

 canus, which has priority, although not generally used until formally 

 adopted by Prof. Baird, in 1857. The Badger was described by Say, in 

 1823, as Taxus labradoricus. Sabine called attention to the difierence be- 

 tween the European and American species the same year, although the 

 establishment of the American genus, Taxidea, was left to Waterhouse, 

 in 1838. 



Perinseal Glancls. — The peculiar organs of the perinaeum and sub- 

 caudal region have not been specially studied in the American 

 Badger, but have been in the European species; it is not likely there is 

 any essential difference in these features between the two. I give here 

 the results of M Chatin's investigations, as compiled by Dr. Coues : 



" The anxil glands are of the normal, musteline type, secreting a viscid, 

 and extremely fetid liquid, of a rosy- yellow color. The secretory portion 



