MEPHITIS, 81 
Full details of the external and osteological characters of these species will be found 
in Dr. Coues’s ‘ Fur-bearing Animals, where are also quoted the observations of Dr. 
Wyman, Dr. Warren, and M. Chatin on the anatomy and physiology of the anal glands 
and secretion which have made the name of Skunk a by-word. 
1. Mephitis mephitica. 
Viverra mephitis, Schreber, Saugth. i. p. 444, pl. cxxi. (1778, ex Linnzeus, ed. x.)’. 
Viverra mephitica, Shaw, Mus. Lever. p. 171 (1792)’. 
Mephitis mephitica, Baird, Mamm. N., Am. p. 195°; Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. i. Pe 178°; 
Coues, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. 2nd ser. no. 1’; Fur- bearing Anim. p. 195°. 
Mephitis vittata, Lichtenstein, Darst. neu. Saugeth. pl. xlvii. (1834, descr. orig.)’; Abh. Ak. Berl. 
1836, p. 278°; Baird, Mamm. N. Am. p. 200°. 
Mephitis mesomelas, Lichtenstein, Darst. neu. Saugeth. pl. lv. fig. 2 (1834, descr. orig.) ; Baird, 
Mamm. N. Am. p. 199”. 
Mephitis varians, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. i. p. 581 (1837, descr. orig.)'*; Baird, Mamm. N. Am. 
p. 193; Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. ii., Mamm. p. 19”. 
? Mephitis bicolor, Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 137 (nec Gray)”. 
Zorrillo of Guatemalans. 
Hab. Nortu America, from Hudson Bay southwards*.—MeExtico (Sallé, Mus. Brit.), 
Matamoras (Couch), San Mateo (Deppe, Mus. Berol."), Oaxaca (Deppe, Mus. Brit.), 
Guanajuato? (Dugés ®); Guatemata (Godman & Salvin). 
The observations of American zoologists have shown the enormous amount of varia- 
tion in colour to which the Common Skunk is liable, not only in individuals inhabiting 
the same locality, but even, as witnessed by Audubon and by Mr. Allen‘, in mem- 
bers of the same litter. Dr. Coues remarks that there is a tendency to an increase of 
white in the markings of Skunks from the eastern and middle States of the Union, 
while it is reduced to a minimum in those of the Gulf States®, In the Mexican speci- 
mens on which Lichtenstein founded his VM. vittata’ the white dorsal stripes are 
narrow and interrupted infront; but no two specimens that I have seen are exactly 
alike, and I have no hesitation in regarding it merely as a dark form of M. mephitica. 
Dr. Coues appears to think that I. vittata might be the same as M. macrura®; but in 
‘this he has probably been misled by Lichtenstein’s figure, in which the tail is repre- 
sented much too long. In one of the specimens in the British Museum the ateral 
stripes are almost obsolete. In a drawing by Mrs. Salvin of a specimen in the Museum 
of Guatemala the white stripes are broad, and there appears to be no frontal stripe or 
nuchal area of that colour. This sketch is the only positive evidence which I have 
hitherto been able to obtain of the extension of the range of IZ. mephitica into Guate- 
mala, where it is probably not so common as Conepatus mapurito. It is not repre- 
sented in Messrs. Godman and Salvin’s collections; and the following notes, supplied to 
BIOL. CENT.-AMER., Mamm. Vol. 1, Fed. 1880. M 
