3. lAXIDEA. 129 



3. TAXIDEA. (American Badger.) 



Nose prominent. Ears rounded. Body heavy, stout. Limbs short. 

 Feet plantigrade. Toes 5/5; front daws elongate, for digging. 

 Tail short. Fur soft, with longer hairs. Skull broad, depressed, 

 and truncated behind. Teeth 34; false grinders | . f. Flesh- 

 tooth very large, triangular. Tubercular grinder triangular, not 

 exceeding the flesh-tooth in size (see P. Z. S. 1853, p. 191). 



Taxidea, Waterhouse, Trans. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 343, t. 59, 1841 ; Gray, 

 P. Z. S. 1865, p. 140. 



Skull depressed, subtriangular, broad and truncated behind ; nose 

 short, broad ; forehead small and sUghtly convex ; suborbital fora- 

 men smaU, trigonal ; orbits incomplete behind. Palate flat, rather 

 produced behind; hinder opening arched, not so wide as the side 

 margin. The auditory bulla large, convex, half ovate, vesicular, 

 thiu. The cutting-teeth short, strong ; four central truncated, outer 

 large, conical. Canines conical, nearly straight. False grinders 

 two, conical ; the hinder larger, with a thickened margin on the 

 inner hinder edge. Flesh -tooth large, triangular, nearly as broad 

 in front as on the outer side ; outer side with two compressed eon- 

 fluent tubercles ; inner side broad, with two conical tubercles, the 

 hinder smaU. The tubercular tooth large, broad, subtrigonal, the 

 inner edge long, the outer short, the hinder edge obliquely truncated. 

 Lower jaw strong ; condyles transverse ; cutting-teeth in a close 

 line, two middle small, two next larger, and outer largest, the four 

 outer obliquely truncated ; canines conical, curved ; false grinders 

 three, the first and second small, conical, third compressed, with 

 two confluent tubercles, outer edge thin ; flesh-tooth oblong, with a 

 single large tubercle in front and two pairs of others, the hind pair 

 curved ; tubercular tooth subconieal, with three tubercles. 



Taxidea americana. B.M. 



Grey, black- and white-varied ; neck and beneath white ; spot 

 before the ears, a narrow streak from nose, above the eyes, to the 

 back, black ; feet dark brown. 



Ursus taxus, Schreb. Sdugeth. p. 520, t. 142 ; Buffon. 



Meles taxus, var. americana, Bodd. Elench. 1. p. 136. 



Males aniericanus, Zimm., from Perm. Arct. Zool. i. p. 76. 



Ursus labradoiius, Omelin, S. N. i. p. 102; Shaw, Zool. i. p. 469, 



t. 106. 

 Meles labradoiia, Sabine, App. Parry's Travels, p. 649 ; Pichardsan, 



Fauna Bor.-Amer. p. 40 ; Fischer, Syn. Mamm. p. 151. 

 Meles Jeffersonii, Harlan, F. Amer. p. 309. 

 Taxidea labradoria, Waterh. Trans. Zool, Soc. ii. p. 348, t. 59 ; Gray, 



List Mamm. B. M. p. 70 ; Gerrard, Cat. Bones, B. M. p. 99 ; Baird, 



Mamm. N. A. p. 202, t. 39. f. 2. 

 Meles labradorius, Schinz, Syn. Mamm. p. 316. 

 Taxus labradorius, Say, Long's Exped. i. pp. 261 & 369, 1823. 

 Carcajou, Buffon, N. H. Supp. iii. p. 242, t. 49 (not La Houtan). 

 Taxidea americana, Baird, Mamm. N. A. p. 202 ; Gray, P. Z. S. 1865, 



p. 141. 



K 



