12 CARNIVORA. 
seems to have been the first to remove it to the Procyonide*; but it is to Professor 
Flower that we owe a full account of its anatomy, which places its systematic position 
beyond question f. 
In outward form the Cacomistles resemble Waswa rather than Procyon, but in 
cranial characters they agree most closely with the latter. The skull may, however, 
be always distinguished from that of the Raccoon by the more slender nasal portion, 
the larger postorbital processes, and above all by the bony palate not being produced 
beyond the last molars. Two species have been well established, which differ as fol- 
lows, as well as in minor cranial and dental characters :— 
1. B. astuta. Pale rufous-grey; tail white, with seven or eight black rings 
interrupted below, shorter than head and body. Soles hairy; incisors smooth 
in front. 
2. B. sumichrasti. Darker ; tail grey, with black rings more complete and broader, 
especially towards the tip, longer than head and body. Ears broader. Soles 
naked in front; incisors grooved in front. 
1. Bassaris astuta. 
Bassaris astuta, Lichtenstein, Abh. Ak. Berl. 1827, p. 119 (sine descr.)'; Wagler, Isis, 1831, p.513 
(descr. orig.)?; Lichtenstein, Darst. neu. Sdugeth. pl. xliii.*; Charlesworth, P. Z.S8. 1841, 
p. 60‘; Baird, Mamm. N. Am. p. 147°; Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. ii., Mamm. p. 18°; 
Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 1877; Allen, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. v. p. 336°. 
Bassaris raptor, Baird, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. ii, Mamm. p. 19 (1859, descr. orig.)°. 
Tepe-Macxtlaton, Cacamiztli, Hernandez, De Quad. Nov. Hisp. fol. 9, cap. xxviii; fol. 12, cap. xl. 
Cacomistle of Mexicans". 
Cat-Squirrel of Texans °. 
Hab. Nortu America, from Oregon and Ohio southwards °.—Mexico (Deppe, Mus. 
Berol.1), Guanajuato (Duges’), City of Mexico (Charlesworth, Mus. Brit.*), Orizaba, 
San Luis Potosi, Sierra Santiago (U.S. Nat. Mus.*). 
This animal was first systematically named in Lichtenstein’s review of Hernandez!; but 
the earliest published description appears to have been that given by Wagler?. The 
animal is now well known, and is found to have a more extended range than was 
formerly supposed: it is found, though rarely, as far north as Oregon and Ohio, is 
plentiful in Texas, California, and Northern Mexico, and goes at least as far south as 
the State of Vera Cruz, whence there are specimens in the National Museum at 
Washington’. In the hotter parts of Mexico it gives place to the next species; but 
as the latter has only recently been discriminated, much still remains to be learned as to 
their local distribution. According to Mr. Allen the Californian example for which 
Professor Baird proposed the provisional name of B. raptor? is referable to this species 
and not, as has been generally supposed, to the next. 
* P.Z.8, 1839, p. 137 (footnote). + P.Z.8. 1869, pp. 31-34. 
