The badger in Tamaulipas is poorly known because only a few specimens
have been reported from the state. I have examined only two; one is
the skull of a juvenile picked up in the sea along the barrier beach
and the other is the skull of an adult male taken in a steel-trap
baited with a bird body and rabbit meat. The trap was set in front of a
hole in the semidesert area 12 miles south of San Carlos.
On their map 471 Hall and Kelson (1959:927) show a total of five
subspecies of _Taxidea taxus_. They include the northern part of
Tamaulipas in the geographic range of _T. t. berlandieri_. On page 926
Hall and Kelson (_op. cit._) list ten additional subspecies described
by Schantz. One of them _T. t. littoralis_ (Schantz, 1949:301) was
based on specimens from southeastern Texas and Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
Of the two specimens examined by me the one from the barrier beach is
here assigned to _T. l. littoralis_ on geographic grounds, and the
other one from the vicinity of San Carlos to _T. l. berlandieri_.
=Taxidea taxus berlandieri= Baird
1858. _Taxidea berlandieri_ Baird, Mammals, in Repts. Expl.
Surv. ..., 8(1):205, July 14, type from Llano Estacado,
Texas, near boundary of New Mexico.
1895. _Taxidea taxus berlandieri_, J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer.
Mus. Nat. Hist., 7:256, June 29.
_Distribution in Tamaulipas._--Reported from only one
locality, in northwestern part of state.
The skull examined, of an adult male, differs from Coahuilan and New
Mexican skulls in having a broad rostrum, better developed sagittal and
lambdoidal crests, and smaller tympanic bullae. The measurements are
greater than those given by Schantz (1949:302) for _T. l. littoralis_
and it is for that reason that the skull examined is assigned to _T. l.
berlandieri_.
_Measurements._--The adult male measured as follows: 710;
115; 110; 55; condylobasal length, 123.1; zygomatic breadth,
81.1; mastoid breadth, 75.5; interorbital constriction,
29.3; least postorbital constriction, 27.6; length of
maxillary tooth-row, 42.7; P4, length, 11.9, width, 10.7;
M1, length, 11.7, width, 11.7; tympanic bulla, length, 23.3,
depth (from basioccipital), 12.8.
_Record of occurrence._--One specimen examined from 12 mi. S
San Carlos, 1300 ft.
=Taxidea taxus littoralis= Schantz
1949. _Taxidea taxus littoralis_ Schantz, Jour. Mamm.,
30:301, August 17, type from Corpus Christi, Nueces Co.,
Texas.
_Distribution in Tamaulipas._--Known only from two
localities in northeastern part of state.
_Records of occurrence._--One specimen examined from 33 mi.
S Washington Beach.
Additional record: Matamoros (Schantz, 1949:302).
=Spilogale putorius interrupta= (Rafinesque)