ON THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN BADGERS. 



423 



25. On the External and Cranial Characters of the European 

 Badger (21elei^) nud of the American Badger (Ta,ridea)* . 

 By R. PococK, F.R.S. 



LReceived May 22, 1920 : Read June 15, 1920.] 

 (Text-figures 19-25.) 



Contents. Page 



Introduction 423 



The Head 424 



The Feet " 426 



The Anal and Genital Areas 428 



The Skull and Teeth 432 



Conclusions 434 



Int7'oductio7i. 



Many descriptions have been published of the European and 

 American Badgers f, and the wide divergences between them in 

 the structure of the skull and teeth were long ago insisted upon 

 by Baird ; but although attention has been drawn to some of the 

 differences in external characters, it seems that dried skins have 

 been in all cases the only material available for the purpose. So 

 far as 1 am aware, no author has had the opportunity hitherto of 

 instituting a comparison between the genera based upon fresh 

 material; and no one appears to have questioned the right of 

 Taxidea to be included in the same subfamily as Meles. Even 

 Gray j, who split his family Melinidte { = Melhice of many recent 

 authors) into the five tribes — Melina, Mellivorina, Mephitina, 

 Zorillina, and Helictidina, ranged Taxidea alongside Meles, being 

 evidently of opinion that the kinship between these two genera 

 is closer than the kinship between Meles and Arctonyx. 



As will appear in the sequel, the outcome of my comparison 

 between the external characters — supplemented by cranial antl 

 dental characters — of the two types is to suggest that the like- 

 nesses between them are superficial, adaptive, and due to 

 similarity of habits, and that the difi:erences between them do 

 not justify their relegation to the same tribe or subfamily. It 

 will be remembered that Mellivora was also formerly assigned 

 to the Melinoi on account of its badger-like build and feet ; but 

 the tendency of modern opinion is to regard the genus as a 



* The facts recorded in this paper are based upon specimens examined at the 

 Society's Prosectorium. 



t The most exhaustive and most recent description of the skull and teeth of 

 Meles known to me ma}^ be found in the ' Catalogue of the Mammals of Western 

 Europe ' ly Miller. The external characters, based upon an examination of dried 

 skins, are, however, brieti^^ dismissed. Coues gave a long and on the whole accurate 

 description of Taxidea in his volume on Fur-bearing Animals, 1877. 



X Cat. Carnivorous etc. Mammalia, 1869, pp. 120-121. Gill (Smithsonian Misc. 

 Coll. xi. pp. 61-66, 1872) adopted Gray's subdivisions, but converted the tribes of 

 Melinidae into subfamilies of the Mustelidse. Coues followed Gill. 



