236 CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



Length about 735 mm. (29 inches) ; tail vertebrae 135 

 (5.33) ; hind foot 100 (4) ; ear from crown 30 (1.20). 



Type locaHty, old Fort Crook, Shasta County, California. 



Badgers are not very common in California, but are found 

 in open country more or less throughout the State. Their food 

 is ground squirrels, gophers, mice, eggs, insects and grubs. The 

 only harm they do man is by digging holes in the ground, these 

 being troublesome in cultivated ground. The young are said 

 to be three or four in number, but I think the number must 

 sometimes be greater, as there are eight mammae. The young 

 are probably born in March or April. 



Badgers are principally nocturnal in habit. They are slow 

 of foot and capture their prey principally by digging it out of 

 burrows, for which work they are particularly adapted by their 

 shape and great strength. They are shy and prefer hiding in 

 burrows to fighting, but if compelled to fight they are plucky 

 and tenacious. 



There are probably two subspecies of Badgers in California, 

 the Western (neglecta) in the mountains and higher valleys, and 

 the California {californica Bennet) in the lower valleys. Very 

 much more material than is now available is necessary to settle 

 this question. 



Genus Mephitis Cuvier. (A foul odor.) 

 Body rather stout ; tail long, very bushy ; anal scent glands 

 highly developed; head small; skull arched; palate ending even 

 with last molars; occipital crests large; saggital crest small ; brain 

 case not widened posteriorly; audital bullae very small. 



Dental formula, I, 3 — 3; C, i — i ; P, 3 — 3 M, i — 2, X2^34. 



Mephitis occidentalis Baird. (Western.) 



CALIFORNIA SKUNK. 



Pelage long and coarse, mostly black ; a narrow white stripe 

 on the crown ; a broad white stripe commencing at the nape, di- 



