3g
described a small quadruped from New York, under the name of Meles alba*.
Brisson’s animal, according to M. Desmarest, proved to be merely an albino
variety of the Raccoon f ; but Buffon afterwards, in the first addition to his
article on the Glutton, described the skin of a true Badger, which he received,
it is said, from Labrador, under the misapplied name of Carcajou%. His
specimen was imperfect, having only four toes the fifth having been rubbed
off, as he supposes, in stuffing ; and Grnelin, who adopted the opinion of
Schreber in considering it to be a distinct species from the European Badger,
carelessly allowed “ jialmis tetradactylis" to form part of the specific character-
Shaw pointed out the differences between the two species more perfectly,
and his-observations have been confirmed and extended by Mr. Sabine, who
described a specimen, obtained on the plains of the Saskatchewan by Captain
Franklin s party. Kalm says that he saw the common Badger in Pennsylvania,
where it is known by the name of the Ground Hog.§. I suspect, however, that
there is some mistake in his observation, because recent American naturalists do
not mention it as an inhabitant of that state ; and the appellation of Ground
Hog is applied by the country people to the marmots and several other animals that
have the habit of burrowing in the earth ||. If there be, indeed, a true Badger on
the Atlantic coast, it must differ in habits, and be perhaps a distinct species from
the one described by Mr. Sabine, which inhabits a district of country very different
in character. For the same reason, I have some doubts of Buffon’s specimen
having come from Labrador,^[. The Blaireaux, seen by Lewis and Clarke on the
plains of the Missouri, are doubtless specifically the same with those of the adjoining
and similar Saskatchewan country; and even the Brairo, which the same
travellers describe as an inhabitant of the open plains, and sometimes of the
woods, of Columbia, presents no character, in their account of it, which denote
it to be distinct from the Saskatchewan animal, except the curious and perhaps
accidental circumstance of a double nail, like the Beaver’s, on one of the toes of
each hind foot.
The Meles Labradoria frequents the sandy plains or prairies which skirt the
Rocky Mountains as far north as the banks of the Peace River, and sources of
* Brisson, Reg tie An.t p. 255.
•f* Desmarest’s Mam in p. 168 and 174.
t The name of Carcajou belongs properly to the Wolverene.
§ Kal-m’s Travels, vol. i. p. 189.
| ®AS,3’ lndeed> ™ noticing; the Badgers of the Missouri; says that they are ahout the size of a ground hog and
nearly of the same colour,—Gass’s Journal, p. 34. . “
. J Boffon says “ qu’il venoit du pays des Esquimaux,” but in fact it may have been brought actually from the banks
of the Saskatchewan by some of the Canadian fur hunters. •
the River of the Mountains, in latitude 58°. It abounds on the plains watered by
the Missouri, but its exact southern range has not, as far as I know, been defined
by any traveller. The sandy prairies, in the neighbourhood of Carlton-house, on
the banks of the Saskatchewan, and also on the Red River, that flows into Lake
Winipeg, are perforated by innumerable Badger-holes, which are a great annoyance
to horsemen, particularly when the ground is covered with snow. These
holes are partly dug by the Badgers for habitations; but the greater number of
them are merely enlargements of the burrows of the Arctomys Hoodii and
Richardsonii, which the Badgers dig up and prey upon.
Whilst the ground is covered with snow, the Badger rarely or never comes
from its hole; and I suppose that in that climate it passes the winter from the
beginning of November to April in a torpid state. Indeed, as it obtains the
small animals on which it feeds by surprising them in their burrows, it has little
chance of digging them out at a time when the ground is frozen into a solid rock.
Like the Bears, the Badgers do not lose much flesh during their long hibernation,
for, on coming abroad in the spring, they are observed to be very fat. As
they pair, however, at that season, they soon become lean.
This Badger is a slow and timid animal, taking to the first earth it comes to
when pursued ; and as it makes its way through the sandy soil with the rapidity
of a mole, it soon places itself out of the reach of danger. The strength of its
fore-feet and claws is so great, that one which had insinuated only its head and
shoulders into a hole, resisted the utmost efforts of two stout young men who
endeavoured to drag it out by the hind legs and tail, until one of them fired the
contents of his fowling-piece into its body. Early in the spring, however, when
they first begin to stir abroad, they may be easily caught by pouring water into
their holes ; for the ground being frozen at that period, the water does not escape
through the sand, but soon fills the hole, and its tenant is obliged to come out.
The American Badger appears to be a more carnivorous animal than the
European one. A female which I killed had a small marmot, nearly entire,
together with some field-mice, in its stomach. It had also been eating some
vegetable matters.
DESCRIPTION
Of a female American Badger, killed at Carlton-house, in the latter end o f AprU.
Its fur is very soft and fine, about three inches and a half long on the back, of a purplish-
brown colour from the roots upwards, variegated with narrow black rings near its summits
and tipped with white, producing a pleasant and somewhat mottled or hoary gray colour, but