o is found in two or three varieties--according to the
part of the country it inhabits. The _Taira_ is another South American
species of badger-like animal, though usually referred to the weasels.

In Africa, the badger appears in the _Ratel_, or honey badger, common
from Senegal to the Cape. In Asia, in its northern zone, we have the
_European badger and Glutton_; and in the south, the _Indian badger_;
while in the Himalaya chain dwells another animal, closely allied to the
badgers, called the _Wha_ or _Panda_. In Java, we find still another
species, the _Nientek_; and in the other large Asiatic islands there are
several kinds of animals that approach very near to badgers in their
forms and habits, but which are usually classed either with the weasels
or civets.

We shall now give some details respecting the different animals of this
family; among which the Glutton, in point of size, as well as for other
reasons, deserves precedence.

The _Glutton_ is the Rosomak of the Russians, in whose country he is
chiefly found--along high northern latitudes, both in Europe and Asia.
He is supposed to be identical with the wolverene of North America; and
if this be so, his range extends all round the Arctic zone of the globe:
since the wolverene is found throughout the whole extent of the Hudson's
Bay territory. There are good reasons to believe, however, that the two
species differ considerably from each other--just as the European badger
does from his American cousins. It was the writer Olaus Magnus who gave
such celebrity to this animal, by telling a very great "story" about the
creature--which, at a time when people were little studied in natural
history, was readily believed. Olaus's report was, that whenever the
glutton killed an animal, he was in the habit of feeding on the carcass
till his belly became swelled out and tight as a drum; that then he
would pass between two trees growing close together--to press the
swelling inwards and ease himself--after which he would return to the
carcass, again fill himself, and then back again to the trees, and so
on, till he had eaten every morsel of the dead animal, whatever might
have been its size! All this, of course, was mere fable; but it is not
without some foundation in fact: for the Rosomak is, in reality, one of
the greatest _gluttons_ among carnivorous animals. So, too, is his
cousin, the wolverene of America; as the fur trappers have had sad
reasons to know--whenev