exhibiting no brown tints when the fur lies smooth. The upper surface of the head is of a
darker colour, bisected by a narrow white line, which runs from the nose to the nape of the
neck. This white stripe is bounded by dark fur, which gradually fades into gray and white as
it approaches the ears. A grayish-brown patch includes the eye, and extends to the tip of
the nose. There is also a brownish patch on the cheek before the ears, but the rest of the
cheek, the under-jaw, and the throat are white. Its belly is thinly coated with coarser whitish
hairs, its legs are of a blackish-brown colour, and its tail of a dirty brown. It is low on its
legs, has a broad, flèshy body, a flattish head, and very short,'round ears. Its claws are long;
strong, and of a pale horn colour. The molar teeth are remarkably smooth and flat on thé
crowns for an omnivorous animal. It measures two feet six inches from the nose tó the root
pf the tail, and the length of its tail is six inches.
The European Badger differs totally from the American one, in its dark-
coloured, much coarser, and shorter fur; in the well-defined white lines on the
head, in its more conspicuous ears, which are black tipped with white, and in
having a larger head. The differences betwixt these animals are detailed in the
following quotation from Mr. Sabine :—
“ The American Badger is generally less in size, and of a lighter make; the head, though
equally long, is not so sharp towards the nose, and the markings on the fur are remarkably
different; a narrow white line runs from between the eyes towards the back, the rest óf the
upper part of the head is brown, the throat and whole tinder jaw are white, thé cheeks partly
so ; a semicircular brown spot is placed between the light part of the cheeks and the ears ;
the white marking extends in a triangular form a little above the eyes, and below the eyes
in a line towards the fore part of the mouth, but the whole eye lies within the dark Colour
of the upper part of the head, which colour runs in a sharp angle at the corner of the eye
into the white. The European Badger has three broad white marks; one on the top of the
head and one on each side, and between them are two broad black lines, which include the
eyes and ears; and the whole under parts of the throat and jaw are black. The upper
parts of the body and sides in the American animal are covered with rather long, fine, grayish
hairs, which in the other are darker, coarser, and longer ; the under parts in the former
are lighter than the upper, in the latter they are darker ; the legs in the first are dark
brown, in the other quite black; and though the animal is of larger size generally, its
nails, which are dark, are smaller than the light horn-coloured nails of the American
species ; and, finally, the tail of the European Badger is longer than that of the American.”
The specimen of the American Badger which Mr. Sabine comments upon, was
two feet two inches long, excluding the tail, which was three inches long. Buffon’s
specimen was two feet four inches in length, exclusive of the tail. He remarks
that it had one molar tooth of a side fewer than the European Badger, and he
pompares the colour of its fur to that of the Canada lynx. The specimen of Meles
Labradoria, in the Zoological Museum, certainly very much resembles the lynx in
the colours of the upper aspect of its body. The Tlacoyotl, seu Coyotlhumuli of
Fernandez, seems to be very like the Meles Labradoria. \ “ Inveni ,iu agro
Tetzcocano animal pilosum valde, vocatum Tlalcoyotl, duas longum spithamas,
unguibus melis, aut Quauhpecotli similibus, brevibus cruribus et nigro vestitis pilo,
brevissiraa cauda, corpore toto ex albo vergente in fulvum, sed dorso, ac superna
parte capitis, et colli nigris, lineaque distinctis candenti ; caput est parvum, rostrum
tenue, et longiusculum, canini exerti, ac vita victusque eadem. quæ Quauhpecotli,
i. e. vorax est, nullisque parcit oblatis escis, nec tamen editur ejus caro*.” The
Ytzcuintecuani, and the Quauhpecotli, or Meles montanus or Texon, of the same
author, are probably of nearly allied genera. The latter has a long tail.
[1 3 .] 1. Gulo l u s c u s . (Sabine.) The Wolverene.
Genus. Gulo.- St orr. Cuvier.
Carcajou. La Hontan, Voyage, vol. i. p. 81. An. 1703.
Quickhatch or Wolverene. Ellis’s Voy. Hudson’s Bay, p. 42, t. iv. An. 1748. Edwards, t. 103.
"Ursus luscus. Linn. Syst., p. 71. Linn. Ghelin, vol. i. p. 103.
Ursus Ereti Hudsonis. Brisson, Quadr., p. 188. An. 1756.
Wolverene. Pennant’s Hist. Quadr., vol. ii. p. 8, t. 8. Arctic Zool., vol. i. p. 66. Hearne’s Journey, p. 372..
Wolverin, Quiquihatch, or Carcajou. Graham’s MSS., p. 13.
Gulo arcticus, var. A. Glouton wolverene. Desmarest, Mamm., p. 174.
Gulo luscus. Sabine (Cart.) Suppl. Parry's First Voy. clxxxiv. Sabine (Mr.) Franklin’s First Journey, p. 650.
Richardson’s Append., Parry's Second Voy., p. 292.
Kablee-arioo, Esquimaux. Naghai-eh. Chepewyans.
Ommeethatsees, okeecoohagew, and okeecoohawgees. Cree Indians.
Carcajou. French Canadians. Quickehatch. English Residents at Hudson’s Bay.
The glutton of the northern parts of Europe, the rossomak of the Russians, has
attracted the attention of naturalists from the many extravagant stories which
have been told of its extraordinary voracity, and of its method of procuring relief
when over-distended with food. Olaus Magnus, who, according to Bulfon, is the
earliest writer that mentions this animal, has collected the popular notions of its
habits, though without giving full credit to them himself ; and his account has
* Fbancisci Fernandez (PMllipi Secundi Prim. Medico) Hist. Anim. Nova Hisp., cap. xxxvij. p. 12.
G