74 CARNIVORA. 
None of the hitherto published figures of this animal being satisfactory, we have had 
the accompanying plate drawn from one of these Guatemalan specimens now in the 
British Museum. 
4, NASUA. 
Nasua, Storr, Prod. Meth. Mamm. p. 35 (1780). 
Caoti, Lacépéde, Mém. de l’Inst. Nat. iii. p. 492 (1801). 
The Coatis differ from the genera already considered in their greatly elongated and 
very mobile snouts, in the consequently produced and narrowed form of the facial portion 
of the skull, and in the reduction of the coronoid process of the mandible to an obtuse 
angle, as well as in their strongly compressed canines and narrower molars. 
The variation of colour in this genus is extremely great; and consequently several 
species have been described, all of which have been reunited by some zoologists. Dr. 
Hensel, however, has clearly shown that two perfectly distinct species exist, differing 
constantly in coloration and in structural characters, and having a different geogra- 
phical distribution *; and both Mr. J. A. Allen and I have independently come to the 
conclusion that these two species are identical with the Viverra narica and V. nasua 
of Linnzus, well characterized by him, but long involved in confusion by subsequent 
writers. Only the former is found north of the Isthmus of Panama; and I may 
refer the reader to Mr. Allen’s excellent paper f for a full description and synonymy 
of the southern species, for which the proper title appears to be Naswa rufa, Desmarest. 
From it the Central-American WN. nasica is distinguishable by its white nose and 
upper lip, its almost concolorous back and tail (in the latter of which annulations are 
either totally absent or obscurely marked on the lower surface only), by its shorter 
ears and softer fur, and by the marked depression of the posterior portion of the 
bony palate. 
1. Nasua nasica ?. 
Viverra narica, Linnzus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 64 (1766, ex Brisson)’. 
Nasua narica, Allen, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. v. p. 162”. 
Nasua leucorhynchus, Tschudi, Faun. Peru. p. 100 (1846, descr. orig.)* ; Frantzius, Arch. f. Naturg. 
xxxv. 1, p. 292*; Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 137°; Hensel, Abh. Ak. Berl. 1872, p. 65°. 
Nasua fusca, Tomes, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 280 (nec Desmarest)”. 
Nasua solitaria, var. mexicana, Weinland, Zoolog. Gart. 1860, p. 191, pl. i. (mec Max. zu Wied)’. 
Nasua socialis et solitaria, de Saussure, op. cit. 1862, pp. 52-56 (nec Max. zu Wied)’. 
* Abh. Ak. Berl. 1872, pp. 65, 66. + Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. v. pp. 153-174. 
+ Opinions have differed as to whether the Linnean name narica was intended to be a derivative from naris, 
or was a misprint for nasica. My friend Mr. H. T. Wharton has kindly investigated this point ; and he tells 
me that the only classical adjective derived from naris, which he can find, is narimosus, which, in a doubtful 
passage in Lactantius, means “ with a broad nose.” Nasica, on the other hand, “ with a long or pointed nose,” 
is a common adjective, and was a well-known surname in the Scipio family. As Linnzeus founded his species on 
the “ Ursus naso producto et mobili, caudé unicolore” of Brisson (Reg. An. p. 262), it seems almost certain that 
he meant to write nasica. 
