428 MR. R. I. POCOUK ox THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 



but it difiers in many strnctnial details. The piriform digital 

 pa,ds are much larger and better defined along tbeir proximal 

 margin, and those of the second, third, and fourth digits are 

 united by webbing extending past the middle of each, these three 

 digits being closer together tlian the second is to the first or the 

 fourth to the fifth, the latter being nearly at the same level as 

 the first. Also the entire foot is wider as compared with its 

 lengtli, and the plantar pad is much narrower and does not occupy 

 the whole width of the foot. It is very imperfectly divided into 

 four lobes. The area behind it on the inner (pollical) side of the 

 foot is partially overgrown and overlapped by hairs; on the outer 

 side it is naked, and on the naked area a little way behind the 

 plantar pad but towards the middle line is a single, rather small, 

 hemispherical carpal pad, representing the inner or radial carpal 

 pad of Meles. This pad is partly overlapped and, according to 

 Coues. is sometimes overgrown by hair (' Fur-bearing Animals,' 

 p. 266). 



Similar diflferences, so far as the larger size of the digital pads 

 and the greater width of the digital portion of the foot are con- 

 cerned, are observable between the hind feet of the two genera ; 

 but the third and fourth digits of Taxidea are not so closely 

 united, there being a definite, though narrow space between the 

 inner proximal ends of the pads. The plantar pad is very 

 ditierent in Taxidea. It is irregularly cordate in shape and 

 about as long as wide, and its lateral margins do not nearly 

 extend to the edges of the feet behind the first and fifth digits. 

 There is, moreover, no trace of metatarsal pads, the hairs of the 

 metatarsal area reaching down to the proximal margin of the 

 plantar pad. 



The Anal and, Genital Areas. 



In Meles ^ as is well known, the anus is sunk in a shallow 

 depression, varying appai-ently to a certain extent in depth 

 according to the individual. Betw^een this and the base of the 

 tail there is a deep subcaudal pocket, partiall}^ divided into a 

 right and left deeper portion by a vertical partition. T'he 

 inferior margin of this pouch is a transverse lamina of integument, 

 forming the partition between it and the shallower circumanal 

 depression. The skin of the subcaudal pouch it.self is hairy and 

 glandular *, and secretes copiously a sticky but not particularly 

 foul-smelling fluid which stains the surrounding integument and 

 hairs black. The true anal glands do not discharge directly into 

 this subcaudal pouch, but just within the orifice of the anus as 

 in all Mustelidie. I have verified the existence of this pouch in 

 the Japanese Badger (xlf. anakuma)., and, according to M. Edwards, 

 it is present in the Tibetan species {M. leucurus). It is also 

 present in the Oriental genus Arctony.v, as recorded by Evans in 



* As fullv described bv Chatin, Ann. Sci. Nat. Jo) xix. pp. lOG-109, pi. vii. figs. 

 66-67 (1874). 



