BASSARIS, 73 
The Common Bassaris still bears the Mexican name of Cacomistle, or Cacamiztli, 
under which it was first noticed by Hernandez. Living naturally among rocks and in 
forests, it often takes up its abode close to mankind, and is even stated by Mr. 
Charlesworth to be abundant in the City of Mexico itself, where it frequents outhouses 
and uninhabited buildings, and commits nightly ravages among pigeons and poultry *. 
The naturalists of the United-States Mexican-Boundary Survey record that on shooting 
a female they found four or five young ones so firmly attached to her nipples that they 
were removed with some difficulty after the mother had been dead for several hours®. 
2. Bassaris sumichrasti. (Bassaris raptor, Tab. VI.) 
Bassaris sumichrasti, de Saussure, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1860, p. 7, pl. i. (descr. orig.)!; Allen, Bull. 
U.S. Geol. Surv. v. p. 338”. 
Bassaris variabilis, Peters, Monatsb. Ak. Berl. 1874, p. 704, pls. i. & ii. (descr. orig.) °. 
Bassaris monticola, Cordero, La Nat. ii. p. 269 (1875, descr. orig.) *. 
Tepechiche del Cofre de Perote, Cacomistle de Monte of Mexicans *. 
Muyus of Guatemalans. 
Hab. Mexico, warmer regions (de Saussure+), Jalapa (Cordero +), Mirador, Tehuantepec 
(U.S. Nat. Mus.*); GuatemMa.a, Volcan de Fuego (Godman & Salvin, Mus. Brit.), 
Coban (Mus. Berol.*) ; Costa Rica, Volcan de Cartago (Arcé, Mus. Brit.), La Palma 
U.S. Nat. Mus.?). 
Although the Southern Bassaris has only been known to science for twenty years, 
' its synonymy has already become involved in confusion, which has unfortunately caused 
our plate to be wrongly lettered. In describing his Bassaris variabilis from Guate- 
mala?, Professor Peters doubtfully referred the B. suwmichrasti of M. de Saussure! to 
the B. raptor of Professor Baird; and as the descriptions of all three writers appeared 
to me to indicate that they had the same animal before them, I was led to adopt the 
latter as the oldest title. But, as mentioned above, Mr. Allen has lately announced 
that Professor Baird’s type specimens prove, on re-examination, to belong to the last 
species”. M. de Saussure’s name must consequently be retained ; and I do not think 
that there can be any doubt that the B. variabilis of Professor Peters and the B. mon- 
ticola of Sefior Cordero* must be regarded as synonyms, the characters by which they 
have been defined not proving constant when a series of specimens are compared. 
The Southern Cacomistle seems to frequent the forest-clad mountains of the warmer 
parts of Mexico and Central America, its range extending as far south as Costa Rica; 
for though Dr. v. Frantzius does not appear to have met with it in that country, two 
specimens have been sent by Arcé to the British Museum from the Volcan de Cartago, 
and the United-States National Museum has received it from La Palma. In Guatemala, 
where it is called Muyus, Messrs. Salvin and Godman write to me that “ several speci- 
mens of this Bassaris were obtained for us by Indian hunters in the forests of the 
Volcan de Fuego. ‘They are found and brought to bay by dogs, and then easily shot. 
BIOL. CENT.-AMER., Mamm. Vol. 1, Fed. 1880. L 
