MAMMALS'—MELINAE—TAXIDEA BERLANDIERI. 
205 
TAXIDEA BERLANDIERI ? 
Mexican Badger. 
Meles labradoria, Bennett, Pr. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1833, 42. 
? Taxidea labradoria, Waterhouse, Pr. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1838, 154. 
Sp. Ch.—S imilar to the common American badger, but with the light line of the top of the head continued, with intervals, 
to near the root of the tail. 
A skin brought by Captain Pope from the Llano Estacado differs from all North American 
ones I have seen in having the white stripe of the top of the head continued backward to the 
shoulders, then interrupted for two or three inches, then reappearing in the middle of the back 
and traceable to near the rump. The hair on the back and the belly appears to have just grown 
out, as it consists almost entirely of stiff hairs less than an inch long. The hairs on the rump 
and the sides of the body are as long as usual. The size is rather less than that of the average 
of Missouri badgers. 
This appears to be the Californian variety of badger referred to by Bennett as gray above, 
with a continuous vertebral stripe. In the Report of the Mexican Boundary Survey I have 
described a species as Taxidea herlandieri , from skulls in the Berlandier collection, and manu¬ 
script descriptions and figures of this same naturalist. The ground color of this species is 
rather reddish than gray, but I am unprepared to say whether they are the same or not. For 
the description of the skulls of the Matamoras species, and a full description from the Berlan¬ 
dier manuscripts, 1 would refer to the above mentioned report. 
List of specimens. 
Catalogue 
Locality. 
Whence obtained. 
Nature of 
number. 
specimen. 
1710 
Llano Estacado Texas ~ „.. 
Captain .T. Pope, IT. R. A___ 
Skin. 
