576 CARNIVORA 
need description, but}it may be mentioned that a full-grown 
individual stands about a foot in height at the shoulder, and 
measures from 24 to 3 feet in length. The young are born in 
a naked and blind condition, usually in litters of three or four. 
It appears that the usual period of gestation is about eleven 
and a half months, but instances are recorded where the period 
has been protracted to upwards of fifteen months. 
Fossil remains of the common Badger are found in the 
Pleistocene deposits of Europe, while extinct species have been 
described from the Lower Pliocene beds of Maragha, in Persia. 
Taxidea..—Dental formula as in JA/eles, except that the rudi- 
mentary anterior premolar appears to be always wanting in the 
upper jaw. The upper carnassial much larger in proportion to the 
other teeth. Upper molar about the same size as the carnassial, 
triangular, with the apex turned backwards. Talon of lower car- 
nassial less than half the length of the tooth. Skull very wide in 
the occipital region ; the lambdoidal crest very greatly developed, 
and the sagittal but slightly, contrary to what obtains in Jfeles. 
Vertebre: C7, D 15, L 5,8 3, C 16. Body very stoutly 
built and depressed. Tail short. The animals of this genus are 
peculiar to North America, where they represent the Badgers of 
the Old World, resembling them much in appearance and _ habits. 
T. americana is the common American Badger of the United States ; 
Tf. berlandieri, the Mexican Badger, is perhaps only a local variety. 
Meltivora.,—Dentition : ¢ 3, ¢ 4, p 3, m 1; total 32. Upper 
carnassial large, with its inner tubercle quite at the anterior end 
of the blade, as in the following genera; molar much smaller and 
transversely extended, having a very small outer and a larger 
rounded inner lobe. Talon of lower carnassial very small, scarcely 
one-fourth of the whole length of the tooth, and with but one cusp ; 
lower tubercular molar absent. Vertebre: C7,D14,L4,8 4, C15. 
Body stout, depressed. Limbs short, strong. Head depressed, nose 
rather pointed. External ears rudimentary. Tail short. The 
animals of this genus are commonly called Ratels. JZ. indica from 
India, and Jf. ratel (Fig. 264) from South and West Africa, have 
nearly the same general appearance and size, being rather larger 
than a common Badger. Their coloration is peculiar, all the upper 
surface of the body, head, and tail being ashy gray, while the lower 
parts, separated by a distinct longitudinal boundary line, are black. 
The two species may be distinguished by the circumstance that 
the African one has a distinct white line round the body at the 
junction of the gray of the upper side with the black of the lower, 
while in the Indian form this line is absent; the teeth also of the 
former are, on the whole, larger, rounder, and heavier than those of 
1 Waterhouse, Prov. Zool. Soc. 1838, p. 154. 
* Storr, Prodromus Meth, Mamm. p. 34 (1780). 
