BADGER. 125 



The Weasel is sjbject to considerable variation in size, 

 which once gave rise to the idea that there might possibly be 

 two species. Thus Gilbert White wrote that " some intelligent 

 country people have a notion that we have, in these parts, a 

 species of the genus Musielinum, besides the Weasel, Stoat, 

 Ferret, and Polecat ; a little reddish beast, not much bigger 

 than a Field-Mouse, but much longer, which they call a Cane.'' 

 It iS; however, now ascertained that the so-called Cane, or 

 Kine, is nothing more than an unusually small female Weasel. 

 Such very small, although fully adult, females have been re- 

 corded not only from Hampshire, but likewise from Kent and 

 Sussex. 



As an example of the pugnacious habits of the Weasel, we 

 may mention that (as we are informed by Mr. Harvie-Brown) 

 there is in the Banff Museum an extraordmary mummified 

 group of these animals, found in a hole of an old tree-stump, 

 all the members of which evidently perished while fighting 

 together. 



THE BADGERS. GENUS MELES. 

 Meles, Storr, Prodromus Method. Mamm. p. 34 (1780). 



The Badgers and their allies, which are assigned to several dis- 

 tinct genera, represent the second sub-family of the MusUlidce, 

 and are characterised as follows. The feet are elongated, with 

 straight toes, and the claws non-retractile, slightly curved, 

 rounded, and blunt, those on the fore-feet being especially 

 elongated. The upper molar tooth, although variable, is gener- 

 ally very large and elongated longitudinally. In habits the 

 members of the sub-family are mostly terrestrial and burrowing 

 animals, and the group has a wide geographical distribution, 

 although unrepresented in South America. 



From their plantigrade feet, short ears and tail, and some- 

 what Bear-like general appearance and gait, the more typical 

 Badgers were long classed with the Bears, and even in the 



