THE MALAYAN BADGER IN BORNEO. 
145 
“ The following note as to the distribution of the Badger- 
headed Mydaus ( Mydaus meliceps), called by the Sundanese 
“ Sigoeng” (Dutch spelling), may not be without interest. 
“ Horsfield says that this species is confined exclusively 
to those mountains which have an elevation of more than 7,000 
feet above the surface of the ocean. There it occurs with the 
same regularity as many plants. The long extended surface of 
Java, abounding with isolated volcanoes with conical points 
which exceed this elevation, affords many places favourable 
to its resort.” 
Lydekker makes the following statement in the Royal Natural 
History, 1897, Yol. II, p. 88 : — 
“ The Malayan badger appears to be confined to the 
mountains of Java, Sumatra and Borneo, ranging in the 
former island from an elevation of about five hundred to up- 
wards of seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. In 
Borneo it is found at elevations of not more than eighty or 
one hundred feet, and in Sumatra does not ascend above one 
thousand feet.” 
I do not know on what authority Lydekker makes the above 
statement regarding the Bornean species. The two skins from ML 
Murud would not come from an elevation of less than 3,000 ft., 
as the country slopes up to the foot of the P'emabo Range, which 
rises from a base about 3,000 feet above the sea level to an altitude 
of over 6,000 feet. The height of Mt. Murud is probably about 
8,000- feet. The Kalabits told me that these badgers were found 
in caves on the mountain, but I did not ascertain how far up. 
As noted before, only two Bornean specimens have apparently 
found their way to European Museums. They are both in the 
British Museum, whence Mr. Oldfield Thomas writes to me in a 
letter dated 1st January 1921: — 
“ I am sorry to say that with regard to Mydaus we are 
where we were when I wrote my paper in 1902. 
“ We have had no more specimens and I can say no more 
than I did then. So Mydaus is evidently a rare animal.” 
The Director of the Zoological Museum, Buitenzorg, Java, 
informs me that they have no specimens of Mydaus from Borneo 
in that Museum. 
The nearest allies to the Malay Badgers ( Mydaus ) are the 
Hog-Badgers or Sand-Badgers ( Arctonyx ), of which species occur 
in China. India, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo.* They 
are distinguished from the Malayan Badgers by their longer and 
more bushy tails, although they resemble them in the long and 
naked muzzle. 
* According to Trouessart and Gyldenstolpe, but no definite record of 
any specimen from Borneo is given. 
R. A. Soc., No. 83, 1921. 
