204 
U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-ZOOLOGY-GENERAL REPORT. 
The following is the result of a direct comparison of the European with the American badger 
since the body of this article was written : 
The differences between the European and American badgers are so strongly marked as 
scarcely tq require a comparison. Thus, in the former, the top and sides of the head may be 
described as white, the end of the muzzle completely encircled by this color ; a little more than 
half way between the end of the snout and the eye commences a strip of black, truncate ante¬ 
riorly, and sending down a small branch towards the canine ; this strip widens gradually, in¬ 
cluding the eye and ear, and is lost on the shoulders. The black of the legs extends over the 
throat to near the end of the chin. There are thus on the top and sides of the head five stripes, 
a median, and two lateral white ones, and two intermediate of black, in addition to the black 
beneath the head ; and anterior to the ear all the stripes are of the same width. 
In the American badger the top of the head is grizzled, with a narrow white median stripe; 
the end of the muzzle (top and sides) is black. The cheeks are white, with a crescentic black 
patch anterior to the ear. The whole under part of head and throat are white. 
There are other important differences of structure. Thus the naked muffle is much larger 
than in the American, and the hairs on the top of the nose do not come within a quarter of an 
inch of the extremity, instead of reaching to the very end. 
The American badger is widely distributed throughout the United States, extending from 
Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, to the Pacific ocean. It ranges far to the north, though no 
positive indication is on hand of its occurrence south of about latitude 35°, below which it 
appears to be replaced by the other species. 1 
Although most authors have made the Mexican badger the same with that of the Missouri 
plains, yet the distinctions are quite decided, as will be seen in the article on Taxidea ber- 
landieri. 
List of specimens. 
Catalogue number. 
Corresponding No. 
of skull. 
Sex and age. 
Locality. 
When 
collected. 
Whence obtained. 
| Original number. | 
Nature of 
specimen. 
Measurements. 
Collected by— 
2078 
Quasquiton, Iowa. 
Skull. 
713 
Rock county, Wis. 
O. Dinsmore......... 
Dry skin ' 
1791 
Fort Pierre, Neb. 
1856 
Lt. G. K. Warren.'... 
1320 
<? 
Upper Missouri .-. 
1855 
1849 
Cannon Ball river, Neb. 
Oct., 1856 ... 
.do . . .. . .. 
.... do 
Dr. F. V. Hayden... 
207 
1178 
Upper Missouri. 
Gov. I. I. Stevens 
do. 
Dr. Geo. Suckley... 
1179 
O 
....do ..... 
775 
1880 
1873 
2571 
<? 
Pole creek, Platte river.. 
Aug. 1,1856 
Lt. F. T. Bryan. 
185 
....do. 
6. 
20i 
5. 
6* 
W. S. Wood. 
1874 
2572 
$ 
Republican Fork.... 
Sept. 28,1856 
364 
n 
29. 
n 
6i 
1195 
Klamath Lake, Cal. 
Lt. R. S. Williamson. 
Dr. J. S. Newberry. 
1 This species has usually borne the name of labradoria, as imposed by Gmelin, in 1788. Boddaert, however, in 1784, named 
it Melts taxus, var. americanus, and in 1787, Zimmermann, in his German translation of Pennant’s Arctic Zoology, called it 
Meles americanus. This name, therefore, takes priority of date over labradoria. 
