The number of species which zoologists admit into the genus Metes is very limited indeed. All writers, without exception, have followed F. euvier's example in excluding the Indian Badger, for the pur pose of making it the type of a new genus, though for what reason it would be difficult to say, since the dental system of this animal has never been properly described, and in all its other characters it differs in no respect from the Common Badger. Many again are disposed tin consider the American Badger as only a simple variety of the European : so that according to these authors the gcuus includes ouly a single species. The observations of Sir John Richardson how ever have placed the distinctucss of the American animal beyond a doubt ; and so long as we have no definite observations to con tradict the approximation, we shall continue to associate the Indian species with the genus to which its known characters so nearly assi milate it.
1. M. rulgaris (Desmarest), the Common Badger, is about the size'of a middling dog, but stands much lower on the legs, and has a broader and flatter body. The head is long and pointed, the ears almost con cealed in the hair of the head, and the tail so short that it scarcely reaches to the middle of the hind legs ; the hide is amazingly thick and tough ; the hair uniformly long and coarse over the whole body, and trailing along the ground on each side as the animal walks. The Badger and its congeners offer a strange intermixture of colours, which is seen in no other mammal, except those of the genera Gulo and illephitis, which, as already remarked, approximate so nearly to it in many other respects : in general the darker shades are found to pre dominate upon the back and upper parts of the body, and the lighter below ; but in the animals above-mentioned this general rule is reversed, and it is the light shades which occupy the back and shoulders, whilst the dark ones are spread over the breast and abdo men. The head of the Badger for instance is white, except the region beneath the chin, which is black, and two bands of the same colour, which rise on each side a little behind the corners of the mouth, and after passing backwards and enveloping the eye and ear terminate at the junction of the head and neck. The hairs of the upper part of the body, considered separately, are of three different colours, yellowish-white at the bottom, black in the middle, and ashy gray at the point ; the last colour alone however appears externally, and gives the uniform sandy-gray shade which covers all the upper parts of the body : the tail is furnished with long coarse hair of the same colour and quality, and the throat, breast, belly, and limbs are covered with shorter hair of a uniform deep black.
Though the Badger is found throughout all the northern parts of Europe and Asia, it is rather a scarce animal everywhere. Its food is chiefly roots, fruits, insects, and frogs, but it likewise destroys the eggs and young of partridges and other birds which build on the ground, and attacks the nests of the wild bees, which it robs with impunity, as the length of its hair and the thickness of its hide render it insensible to the sting of the bee. It chooses the most solitary woods for its residence, is quiet and inoffensive in its manners, but when attacked defends itself with a courage and resolution which few doge of double its own size and weight can overcome. It bites angrily, and holds on with great tenacity, which it is enabled to do the more easily from the peculiar construction of the articulation or hinge that connects its under jaw with the skull, and which consists of a transverse condyle completely locked into a bony cavity of the cranium. The Badger is not mentioned by Aristotle, and possibly may not be found in Greece, as the ancient language of that country has not even a name for it, and as it is less common in the southern than in the northern parts of Europe. Pliny however notices it under the name of Melia (viii. 28), and various other Roman authors have spoken of it. More recent writers also use Taxes, perhaps derived, like other Roman names of northern animals, from the German language, in which the Badger is called Zachs or Dacha ; in Dutch Das. The female brings forth her young in the early part of spring, to the number of three, four, or five ; she continues to suckle them carefully for the first five or six weeks, and afterwards accustoms them gradually to shift for themselves. When taken young they are easily tamed, and become as familiar and playful as puppies; they soon learn to distinguish their master, and show their attachment by following or fawning upon those who feed them; the old however are always indocile, and continue solitary and distrustful under the most gentle treatment.
The Badger is hunted in some parts of the country during the bright moonlight nights, when he goes abroad in search of food. The hide, when properly dressed, makes the best pistol furniture; the hair is valuable for making brushes to soften the shades in painting; and the hind-quarters, when salted and smoked, mako excellent hams.