144 
THE MALAYAN BADGER IN BORNEO. 
“ A few weeks ago I came across a recently killed one- 
near onr cattle sheds on the Segama River, about 8 miles 
from Lahad Datu.” 
Another correspondent, Mr. E. Stuart Young, who spent eleven 
years in British North Borneo, gives me the following interesting 
note : — 
“It was in 1915 near the banks of the Pegallen River 
some ten miles as the crow flies above Tenom, that one of my 
natives met this beast at the foot of a big tree. As he got up 
to it the powerful odour you mention was emitted and he was 
rendered unconscious for about an hour. The animal ran into- 
a hole at the base of the tree and the man was carried away by 
his companions. 
“ The native, who was very intelligent, was a Tvadayan 
brought up amongst the Dayaks in Sarawak and had been all 
over the jungles whose water flows into Brunei Bay. He had - 
never seen or heard of such an animal before.” 
The Kalabits informed me that, so far as they knew, these 
Badgers, including the two skins they gave me, were only found 
in caves on Mt. Murud, a mountain which forms the northern and 
highest end of the Pemabo Range at the headwaters of the Baram 
River, Long 115° 30' E & Lat 3° 50' X. This mountain has never 
been visited by Europeans, although one or two Sarawak Govern- 
ment Officers have been within sight of it and passed close to it. 
The Kalabits told me of the powerful smell emitted by this 
Badger — Dengan-ruit ” is their name for it. They said it was so 
bad that dogs, on entering a Badger’s cave, had actually been killed 
by the poisonous smell. I am afraid I did not treat this part of 
their tale as seriously as perhaps it may have deserved. However, 
they assured me that it was strictly true. I was therefore parti- 
cularly interested to receive Mr. Stuart Young’s account quoted 
above and to find the following note published in the Proceedings 
of the Zoological Society of London, 1879 (pp. G64-5) : — 
“ The following extracts from a letter addressed to the 
Secretary by Mr. Henry 0. Forbes, dated “ Kosala, Bantam, 
W. Java, July 27, 879, were read: — 
“ My present residence is about 2,000 feet above the sea. 
Many, many times, especially in the evening just after dusk, 
the Mvdaus ha*s discovered its proximity to us by its extremely 
disagreeable and peculiar odour. So powerful indeed is this 
that natives attempting to catch these animals, often fall down 
insensible if struck by the discharge from their anal battery. 
Even at the distance of half a mile and more the stink, as I 
must call it, permeates the atmosphere so thickly that it is 
plainly discernible by the taste.” 
In regard to the altitude at which this Badger is found, Forbes 
writes in the above-quoted letter: 
Jour. Straits Branch. 
