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Show 206 DR. J. E. GRAY ON M E L E S CHINENSIS. [Mar. 12, elongated, with rings of square scales and short bristly hairs. The skull was broken up; the teeth are not said to be rooted, or not rooted. SACCOMYS ANTHOPHILUS. Head, shoulders, back, and rump pale fulvous ; pouch and limbs paler ; end of nose beneath reddish white. Saccomys anthophilus, F. Cuvier, Mem. du Mus. x. 419. t. 26, 1823. Hab. North America (F. Cuvier) ; probably some of the West- India Islands (Spencer Baird). 5. Notice of a Badger from China (Meles chinensis), sent by Mr. Swinhoe, H.M. Consul at Amoy, and Dr. Hartland from Hongkong. By Dr. J. E. G R A Y , F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., &c. Mr. Swinhoe has sent to the British Museum, from Amoy, the skin and skull of a Badger, which the British Museum had before received from Dr. Hartland, from Hongkong. It is a very distinct species from the Badger of Europe and Japan; but the skull is very similar to that of the Badger from Thibet which Mr. Hodgson named Taxidea leucurus-the Meles leucurus of my monograph of Mustelidee in the 'Proceedings' of the Society for January 1865, p. 139. But the fur of both the specimens is so different from that of the skin of the Thibet animal sent by Mr. Hodgson, that I believe it is an undescribed species, unless it is the Amur Badger, described as a variety of the European animal by Middendorff and Schrenck. It differs from the European Badger in the form of the skull, and almost justifies Mr. Hodgson referring it to a distinct genus. He first referred it to Mr. Waterhouse's genus Taxidea, but afterwards gave the group the name of Pseudomeles. The British Museum contains specimens of the skulls of the European, Japanese, Thibetan, and Chinese Badgers ; the three species are most distinctly marked by their skulls. Indeed the animals may be divided into two groups, according to the form of the skull, thus :- I. Skull ovate, swollen behind ; the forehead and upper part of the nose broad, flat above, and rounded on the sides; the face short, thick. The flesh-teeth of the lower jaw moderate, shorter than the tooth-line occupied by the three premolars. Meles. 1. MELES TAXUS, Linn. Skull large ; face very broad and rounded in front; the nasal aperture large, broad, as broad as high, postorbital aperture moderate, subcircular. |
