44. 
separated at its base from the body; the long, coarse hair of the body 
covers it thickly; the end is obtusely rounded. The colors vary greatly 
with age, season or condition of pelage, from the pattern already given ; 
this variation is mestly in the relative amounts of the whitish and 
grayish shades which produce the grizzle. The color-markings of the 
head are quite uniform; the top is dark-brown, or blackish, decreasing 
in intensity and purity from the snout to the nape, where it blends with 
the grayish from behind. This dark top area is split by a sharp white 
or whitish median stripe from snout to nape; this stripe is constant, 
though varying in length and width. The extreme muzzle is dark on 
the sides; the white of the chin and throat extends up opposite the 
canines to the white ears, only interrupted by a dusky patch anterior te 
the ear. The feet are dark brown or blackish, the claws, especially the 
front, light colored. The body-colors vary under climatic influences 
from the whitish or dirty, yellow-tinged specimens from the dry, inte- 
rior region, to the fulvous or tawny-tinged specimens, mixed with much 
nearly pure black, from the well watered regions of the Pacific slops and 
eastern border of the great central plateau; these two forms grade in- 
sensibly intv each other. 
None of the specimens here described have the median white stripe 
continued back of the nape, as in the Mexican badger (T. americana, var. 
berlandieri, Gray), which has the white dorsal stripe extending, tnough 
sometimes interrupted, from the nose to the tail. | 
History.—The early history of the Badger is involved with the Euro- — 
pean species, Meles taxus, and with the Woodchuck, Arctomys monaz, by 
Kalm, and with an Albino Raccoon, the Meles alba of Brisson. Buffon 
doubted if the Badger inhabited America. Boddaert, in 1784, designated 
it as Meles taxus, var. americana. Zimmerman adopted the name M. amert- 
canus, which has priority, although not generally used until formally 
adopted by Prof. Baird, in 1857. The Badger was described by Say, in 
1823, as Taxus labradoricus. Sabine called attention to the difference be- 
tween the Kuropean and American species the same year, although the 
establishment of the American genus, Taxidea, was left to Waterhouse, 
in 1838. 
Perinzal Glands—The peculiar organs of the perineum and sub- 
caudal region have not been specially studied in the American 
Badger, but have been in the European species; it.is not likely there is 
any essential difference in these features between the two. I give here 
the results of M Chatin’s investigations, as compiled by Dr. Coues: 
“The anal glands are of the normal, musteline type, secreting a viscid, 
and extremely fetid liquid, of a rosy-yellow color. The secretory portion 
