590 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 6. 



white throat, whereas the European Badger (of which we possess two 

 mounted specimens for comparison) has constantly a black throat. From 

 the Taxidea of Tibet it differs altogether, as much as the European Badg- 

 er differs from the N. American Taxidea : it has smaller and much less 

 tufted ears, a shorter and much less brushy tail, and the fur shorter and 

 coarser, though of finer texture than in the European Badger, with much 

 woolly hair at its base. General colour as in Meles taxus, but the throat 

 white as aforesaid, and the markings of the face are different. In M. 

 taxus the head is white, and a broad and well defined blackish-brown 

 band commences midway to the eye and muzzle, is continued through the 

 eye and ear, and gradually disappears upon the shoulder ; the bands of 

 the two sides leaving a broad and well defined white interspace, which 

 contracts and is gradually lost posterior to the ears. In the Tibetan 

 Badger (M. albogularis, nobis), the white interspace referred to con- 

 tracts immediately behind the eyes, and continues as a narrow and ill 

 defined band so far as between the ears only ; the lateral dark bands pro- 

 portionally expanding behind the eyes, and all merging in the grizzled hue 

 of the back from the occiput, and not from the shoulder backward as in 

 M. taxus. In the European Badger the cheeks are broadly white, bor- 

 dered above by the dark band through the eye, and below by the black 

 throat. In the Tibetan Badger there is little white below the eye, and 

 this ill-defined ; and it is bordered below by a narrow dark band, beyond 

 which is the white throat. I do not doubt that these distinctions will 

 prove permanent, as the European Badger is not subject to vary in its 

 peculiar markings (though some affined animals, as the American Skunks 

 and African Zorilles, certainly do, to a greater or less extent in different 

 species). The Tibetan Badger is probably also a smaller animal than that 

 of Europe.* 



"While examining our series of the Badger group, my attention was 

 attracted to another undescribed species, which I have recognised as dis- 



* N. B. It would seem that Mr. Hodgson has figured the exterior of the 

 Tibetan Taxidea, and the skull of the Tibetan Meles as that of the Taxidea; 

 little suspecting the existence of a true Meles also in Tibet. In this case, the 

 Tibetan true Badger would be fully as large as that of Europe. It is also pro- 

 bable that the identical specimens were forwarded to the Hon'ble Company's 

 museum by Mr. Hodgson, being those noticed by Mr. Gray in Ann. Mag. N. H 

 Sept. 1853, p. 221. There can, assuredly, not be the least doubt of the specifical, 

 if not generic, distinctness of the two Tibetan specimens now sent by Dr. Camp- 

 bell, although the skulls of both are unfortunately wanting. 



