Notes. 
The Malayan Badger. 
Dr. W. Docters van Leeuwen, Director of the Botanical 
Gardens, Buitenzorg contributes the following interesting notes 
on the Malayan Badger in Java:— ; 
Buitenzorg, 20th May, 1921. 
“ With much interest I have read your article on the 
occurrence of the Malayan Badger in Borneo (Journ. Str. Br. 
Roy. Asiat. Soc. No. 88, 1921, pp. 142-146). This animal is 
very common in Java and I have seen it or smelt it on every 
mountain which I have visited. The lowest elevation at 
which I have seen this animal was 1000 feet on Mount Moeria 
in Java-central. The last time I saw it on Mount Pangerango, 
near Buitenzorg, was from an elevation of 4000 feet up to 
the summit, about 11,000 feet. There it is also common and 
very tame; in the vicinity of my mountain cabin it seeks the 
earthworms and insects under the thick moss-cover of the 
old crater valley. In the neighbourhood of our mountain 
laboratory at Tjibodas it is also very frequent and more than 
once we were awakened by the stink of this animal walking 
under our sleeping room. 
“Tt will interest you perhaps that jn this forest there is 
a kind of fern, which has the same smell as the badger though 
not so strong, and which is named by the natives the “ pakoe 
sigoeng ”; its scientific name is Didymochleena lunulata Desv. 
“JT have had some accidents meeting this animal but 
never have I felt any ill effect from the anal fluid though it is 
far from agreeable to be in contact with it. In some parts of 
Java, especially in the old sultanates it is said that a very 
weakened solution of the fluid is used as a perfume.” 
Buitenzorg, 2nd June, 1921. 
“In the neighbourhood of Mount Goentoer near Garoet 
I had once built a small bamboo cabin, with walls of dried 
grass and about every evening a badger came and looked in 
one of my open rooms and every night as he walked near the 
cabin we were awakened by the smell. This stench he bears 
too, when not irritated, in his hairs, and also the path followed 
by this animal in the forest is recognisible by the stink. In 
the forest of Mount Pangerango I have seen the badger often 
in the first hours of the afternoon, but it is really a night- 
animal.” 
‘ 
Jour. Straits Branch 
