An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct / by William Henry Flower and Richard Lydekker.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct / by William Henry Flower and Richard Lydekker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    597/788 (page 577)
    the latter. In spite of these differences the two are, however, so nearly allied that they might almost be considered as local races of a single widely spread species. The following account of the Indian species is extracted from Dr. Jerdon's Mammals of India: The Indian badger is found throughout the whole of India, from the extreme south to the foot of the Himalayas, chiefly in hilly districts, where it has greater facilities for constructing the holes and dens in which it lives ; but also in the north of India in alluvial plains, where the banks of Fig. 264.—The African Eatel (MelUvora raid). large rivers afl^ord equally suitable localities wherein to make its lair. It IS stated to live usually in pairs, and to eat rats, birds trogs, white ants, and various insects, and in the north of India it is accused of digging out dead bodies, and is popularly known as the grave-digger. It doubtless also, like its Cape congener occasionally partakes of honey. It is often very destructive to poultry, and I have known of several having been trapped and killed whilst committing such depredations in Central India and in the northern Circars. In confinement the Indian badger is quiet and ^Yl\\ partake of vegetable food, fruits, rice, etc. . A fossil species of B'leUivora, apparently closely allied to the existing forms, occurs in the Pliocene Siwaliks of India. The samp 37