Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Part 28

Jerdon has epitomised Hodgson's description of the habits of this animal as follows: "The Wah is a vegetivorous climber, breeding and feeding chiefly on the ground, and having its retreat in holes and clefts of rock. It eats fruits, roots, sprouts of bamboo, acorns, &c.; also, it is said, eggs and young birds; also milk and ghee, which it is said to purloin occasionally from the villages. They feed morning and evening, and sleep much in the day. They are excellent climbers, but on the ground move rather awkwardly and slowly. Their senses all appear somewhat blunt, and they are easily captured. In captivity they are placid and inoffensive, docile and silent, and shortly after being taken may be suffered to go abroad. They prefer rice and milk to all other food, refusing animal food, and they are free from all offensive odour. They drink by lapping with the tongue, spit like cats when angered, and now and then utter a short deep grunt like a young bear. The female brings forth two young in spring. They usually sleep on the side, and rolled into a ball, the head concealed by the bushy tail." (For the full account see 'Jour. As. Soc. Beng.'

vol. xvi. p. 1113.)

Mr. Bartlett, who has studied the habits of the specimen in the London Gardens, says that in drinking it sucks up the fluids like a bear instead of licking it up like a dog or cat, which disagrees with what Hodgson states above. "When offended it would rush at Mr. Bartlett, and strike at him with both feet, the body being raised like a bear's, and the claws projecting."

General Hardwicke was the first to discover this animal, which he described in a paper read before the Linnaean Society on the 6th of November 1821, but it was not published for some years, and in the meanwhile M. Duvaucel sent one to M. F. Cuvier, who introduced it first to the world. Some years ago I had a beautiful skin of one offered to me for sale at Darjeeling by some Bhotias, but as it was redolent of musk and other abominations quite foreign to its innocent inodorous self, I declined to give the high price wanted for it.

SEMI-PLANTIGRADES.

These form part of the Plantigrada of Cuvier and part of the Digitigrada; they walk on their toes, but at the same time keep the wrist and heel much nearer to the ground than do the true Digitigrades, and sometimes rest on them. Of those Semi-plantigrades with which we now have to deal there are three sections, viz., the _Mustelidae_, containing the Gluttons, Martens, Weasels, Ferrets, Grisons, &c., the _Melidae_, _Melididae_ and _Melinidae_ of various authors: i.e.

Badgers, Ratels, and Skunks; and the _Lutridae_ or Otters. Some writers bring them all under one great family, _Mustelidae_, but the above tripart.i.te arrangement is, I think, better for ordinary purposes. To the mind of only moderate scientific attainments, a distinct cla.s.sification of well-defined groups is always an easier matter than a large family split up into many genera defined by internal anatomical peculiarities.

Of the Semi-plantigrades at large Jerdon remarks: "None of them have more than one true molar above and another below, which, however, vary much in development, and the flesh tooth is most marked in those in which the tuberculate is least developed, and _vice versa_. The great and small intestines differ little in calibre, and many of them (i.e. the family) can diffuse at will a disgusting stench." This last peculiarity is a specialty of the American members of the family, notably the skunk, of the power of which almost incredible stories are told. I remember reading not long ago an account of a train pa.s.sing over a skunk, and for a time the majority of the pa.s.sengers suffered from nausea in consequence. Sir John Richardson writes: "I have known a dead skunk thrown over the stockades of a trading port produce instant nausea in several women in a house with closed doors, upwards of a hundred yards distant." The secretion is intensely inflammatory if squirted in the eye.

MELIDIDAE; OR, BADGER-LIKE ANIMALS.

This group is distinguished by a heavier form, stouter limbs, coa.r.s.e hair, and slower action; in most the claws are adapted for burrowing.

None of them are arboreal, although in olden times marvellous tales were told of the wolverene or glutton as being in the habit of dropping down from branches of trees on the backs of large animals, clinging on to them and draining their life blood as they fled. Some of them are capable of emitting a noisome smell. The teledu of Java (_Mydaus meliceps_) is the worst of the family in this respect, and almost equals the skunk. It is possible that this animal may be found in Tena.s.serim.

_GENUS ARCTONYX_.

Dent.i.tion much the same as that of the Badger (_Meles_). Incisors, 6/6; can., 1--1/1--1; premolars, 3--3/3--3; molars, 1--1/1--1. The incisors are disposed in a regular curve, vertical in the upper jaw, obliquely inclined in the lower; canines strong, grinders compressed; general form of the badger, but stouter. Feet five-toed, with strong claws adapted for digging, that of the index finger being larger than the other.

NO. 170. ARCTONYX COLLARIS.

_The Hog-Badger_ (_Jerdon's No. 93_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Balu-suar_, Hind., Sand-pig, or, as Jerdon has it, _Bhalu-soor_, Hind., i.e. Bear-pig; _Khway-too-wet-too_, Arakanese.

HABITAT.--Nepal, Sikim, a.s.sam, Sylhet, Arakan, extending, as Dr.

Anderson has observed, to Western Yunnan. The late General A. C.

McMaster found it in Shway Gheen On the Sitang river in Pegu. I heard of it in the forests of Seonee in the Central Provinces, but I never came across one.

[Figure: _Arctonyx collaris_.]

DESCRIPTION.--"Hair of the body rough, bristly, and straggling; that of the head shorter, and more closely adpressed. Head, throat, and breast yellowish white; on the upper part this colour forms a broad regularly-defined band from the snout to the occiput; ears of the same colour; the nape of the neck, a narrow band across the breast, the anterior portion of the abdomen, the extremities, a band arising from the middle of the upper lip, gradually wider posteriorly, including the eyes and ears, and another somewhat narrower arising from the lower lip, pa.s.sing the cheek, uniting with the former on the neck, are deep blackish-brown" (_Horsfield_). The tail is short, attenuated towards the end, and covered with rough hairs.

SIZE.--From snout to root of tail, 25 inches; tail, 7 inches; height at the rump, 12 inches.

M. Duvaucel states that "it pa.s.ses the greatest part of the day in profound somnolence, but becomes active at the approach of night; its gait is heavy, slow, and painful; it readily supports itself erect on its hind feet, and prefers vegetables to flesh."

Jerdon alludes to all this, and adds, "one kept in captivity preferred fruit, plantains, &c., as food, and refused all kinds of meat. Another would eat meat, fish, and used to burrow and grope under the walls of the bungalow for worms and sh.e.l.ls." My idea is _Balu-suar_, or Sand-pig is the correct name, although _Bhalu-suar_ or Bear-pig may hit off the appearance of the animal better, but its locality has always been pointed out to me by the Gonds in the sandy beds of rivers in the bamboo forests of Seonee; and Horsfield also has it _Baloo-soor_, Sand-pig.

Bewick, who was the first to figure and describe it, got, as the vulgar phrase hath it, the wrong pig by the lug, as he translates it _Sand-bear_. McMaster also speaks of those he saw as being in deep ravines on the Sitang river.

The stomach of Arctonyx is simple; there is no caec.u.m, as is the case also with the bears; the liver has five lobes; under the tail it has glands, as in the Badgers, secreting a fatty and odorous substance.

NO. 171. ARCTONYX TAXOIDES.

_The a.s.sam Badger_.

HABITAT.--a.s.sam and Burmah.

DESCRIPTION.--Smaller than the last, with longer and finer fur, narrower muzzle, smaller ears, shorter tail, and more distinct markings. The measurement of the respective skulls show a great difference. The length of a skull of a female of this species given by Dr. Anderson is 4.75 inches against 6.38 of a female of _A.

collaris_. The breadth across the zygomatic arch is 2.38 against 3.64 of _A. collaris_. The breadth of the palate between the molars is only 0.81 against 1.07.

_GENUS MELES_.

_SUB-GENUS TAXIDIA_.

This sub-genus is that of the American type of Badger, to which Hodgson, who first described the Thibetan _T. leucurus_, supposed his species to belong; but other recent naturalists, among whom are Drs. Gray and Anderson, prefer to cla.s.s it as _Meles_. Hodgson founded his cla.s.sification on the dent.i.tion of his specimen, but Blyth has thrown some doubt on its correctness, believing that the skull obtained by Hodgson with the skin was that of _Meles albogularis_. Hodgson, however, says: "from the English Badger type of restricted _Meles_ our animal may be at once discriminated without referring to skulls by its inferior size, greater length of tail, and partially-clad planta or foot-sole."

NO. 172. MELES (TAXIDIA) LEUCURUS.

_The Thibetan White-tailed Badger_.

NATIVE NAME.--_Tampha_.

HABITAT.--The plains of Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--"Fur long, flaccid, dark iron-grey and white mixed; hair long, white, with a broad sub-lunate black band and a white tip; under fur abundant, long, white; a streak on each side of the forehead blackish grey, varied; chin, throat, legs and under side of the body black; tail, sides of head, and body whitish."--_Gray_.

The aspect, according to Hodgson, is entirely that of a long-tailed Badger (Gray remarks: "it most resembles the European animal "), with somewhat smaller head, with longer, finer fur than usual; the entire sole of the foot is not naked, but only about two-thirds, and the toe-pads are very much developed, thus raising the powerful long fossorial claws from the ground in walking.

SIZE.--Total length 37 inches, of which the tail, with the hair, is 10 inches, and without the hair 7 inches; the longest hair of the body is 4-1/2 inches.

There is not much known about the _Tampha_. According to what Hodgson was able to gather concerning his habits, "he dwells in the more secluded spots of inhabited districts, makes a comfortable, s.p.a.cious and well-arranged subterraneous abode, dwells there in peace with his mate, who has an annual brood of two to four young, molests not his neighbour, defends himself if compelled to it with unconquerable resolution, and feeds on roots, nuts, insects and reptiles, but chiefly the two former--on vegetables, not animals--a point of information confirmed by the prevalent triturant character of the teeth." The colouring of this animal is almost identical with the English badger, only that his tail is longer and whiter.

NO. 173. MELES ALBOGULARIS.

_The White-throated Thibetan Badger_.

HABITAT.--Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Smaller and much less tufted ears than the last species; a shorter and much less bushy tail; and the fur shorter and coa.r.s.er, though of finer texture than in the European badger, with much woolly hair at its base. Both the English badger and _M.

leucurus_ are black throated; this one is white throated. The English animal has a broad band of brownish-black, which begins between the muzzle and the eye, and runs through the eye and ear till it fades off on the neck; the s.p.a.ce of white between these two bands on the forehead runs back and contracts behind the ears. In the Thibetan animal it contracts just behind the eyes, and is continued as a faint narrow streak only as far as the ears. In the English one the cheeks are broadly white between the eye-band and the black throat; in the Thibetan there is a little white below the eye, and this is bordered by a narrow black stripe, beneath which is the white throat.

There is another Thibetan badger mentioned by Professor Milne-Edwards in his 'Recherches sur les Mammiferes,' a white-throated one, _M. obscurus_, but it appears to be the same as _M. albogularis_.

_GENUS MELLIVORA_.

Tubercular grinder transverse; flesh-tooth larger, with a small internal lobe, and with a single tubercle; lower flesh-tooth tricuspidate, sharp-edged; head depressed; nose blunt; ears not visible externally; body stout, depressed; legs short, and strong; feet plantigrade, five-toed; front claws elongated and strong; the bald sole of the hind foot occupying the whole under surface, only slightly divided across about one-third of its length from the front; tail very short, with powerfully offensive glands; it has a thick loose skin and a subcutaneous layer of fat, which doubtless protect it from stings of bees, on which this genus is supposed to feed whenever it can.

NO. 174. MELLIVORA INDICA.

_The Indian Ratel or Honey-Badger_ (_Jerdon's No. 94_).