764 On the Tibetan Badger. [Aug, 



is provided with perfect head and limbs, these spoils afford excellent 

 materials for description, exclusive of the soft viscera and their long 

 case, which are wanting. 



The Badger of Tibet, called Tumpha by the inhabitants, falls under 

 the North American instead of the European section of the Genus. In 

 other words, it is a Taxidia not a Meles, of systematists, having only 

 four molar teeth on each side of either jaw, whereas the European type 

 has five molars above and six below, on either side. 



The Tibetan Tumpha is a smaller animal than the Badger of Europe 

 or than the Carkajou of America. It is contra-distinguished from 

 both these animals by a considerably longer tail, and also by a locomo- 

 tive structure not plantigrade, but only subplantigrade, or, in plainer 

 terms, by having a third of the sole of the hind feet thickly covered with 

 hair instead of the whole being nude to the heel. From the Carkajou 

 of America the Tumpha of Tibet differs by the very inferior size of the 

 claws of the posterior extremities,* a point in which the Tumpha agrees 

 with the European Badger, as it also does so remarkably in colours that 

 there is some difficulty, without having both animals before one, in 

 noting their difference in this respect. On the other hand, the dis- 

 agreement of the Tumpha with the American Badger in point of colour 

 is as striking as is its craniological conformity with that animal and 

 deviation from the Badger of Europe. The last named animal is from 

 2\ to 2f feet long from snout to vent, and the tail, inclusive of the 

 hair, is from 6 to 7 inches more. The head to the nape, is 6^ to 7 

 inches, and the mid fore claw 1£ inches. I have no equally accurate 

 details to refer to for the Carkajou, but it is, I believe, about the size 

 of the European Badger, or somewhat less ; and II. Smith says it has 

 a shorter head but stands rather higher on the legs. These references 

 to the Badgers of Europe and America, will I hope, enable the reader 

 better to appreciate the following description of the Badger of Asia, 

 now first noticed as a tenant of this quarter of the globe. 



The Tumpha or Tibetan Badger is in total length 37 inches, where- 

 of the tail, with the hair, is 10 inches, and without it, 7- The head is 

 :)\ inches, the palm and nails 3|, the planta or rest of the hind foot, 



7 II. Smith, describing the Carkajou from life, expressly says thai "a// the extremities 

 irmed with long - powerful claws," or I should have supposed the forefeet only are so 

 armed, as in the Badger and Tumpha. See Note, Lib. XL 211. 



