82 CARNIVORA. 
me by these gentlemen, may apply in part to the southern form :—“ Skunks,” they 
inform me, “are found throughout Guatemala; and few country houses, where old 
stone walls or fences abound, are not infested by these beautiful but nauseous animals. 
They are seldom seen, being nocturnal in their habits; but not unfrequently, during 
the night, one is awakened by a clamour of dogs, which is soon followed by the air 
being tainted with the foul odour which makes the Skunk so notorious. 
“These animals are preyed upon by Hawks and Owls, and we have not unfrequently 
shot specimens of these birds whose plumage reeked of the odour of a Skunk.” 
2. Mephitis macrura. 
Mephitis macrura, Lichtenstein, Darst. neu. Sdugeth. pl. Ixvi. (1834, descr. orig.)'; Abh. Ak. 
Berl. 1836, p. 277°; Baird, Mamm. N. Am. p. 200°; Dugés, La Nat. 1. p. 137 *; Coues, 
Fur-bearing Anim. p. 236°. 
Mephitis mexicana, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. i. p. 581 (1837, descr. orig.)”. 
Zorrillo of Mexicans (common to all the species)". 
Hab. Mexico (Mus. Brit.®), near City of Mexico (Deppe, Mus. Berol.'), Guanajuato 
(Duges*), Orizaba (Botteri, U.S. Nat. Mus.’). 
After an examination of the specimens in the Berlin and British Museums, I fully 
agree with Dr. Coues in regarding the Long-tailed Skunk as deserving of specific 
recognition. In none of the numerous varieties of WM. mephitica have I been able to 
find an approach to the broad hoary dorsal band with narrow lateral white stripes 
which mark this species; and the great proportional length of the tail also appears 
to be constant. As Dr. Coues has shown, this is not the I. macrura of Audubon and 
Bachman*, which is identical with 7. mephitica; and I have already given my reasons 
for referring Lichtenstein’s MV. vittata to that species, instead of to the present, as 
suggested by Dr. Coues®. Nor, as will be seen presently, do I agree with that gentle- 
man in giving Mr. Tomes’s I. longicaudata as even a doubtful synonym of VM. macrura ; 
so that there appears to be no recorded evidence of the occurrence of the latter outside 
of the boundaries of Mexico. Judging from the few specimens of which the exact 
localities have been recorded, the Long-tailed Skunk seems to inhabit the central and 
southern States of that Republic, occurring in some places along with the last species. 
3. Mephitis putorius. 
Viverra putorius, Linneus, Syst. Nat. 1. p. 64 (1766, ex Catesby)*. 
Spilogale putorius, Coues, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. 2nd ser. no. 1, p. 12”. 
Mephitis (Spilogale) putorius, Coues, Fur-bearing Anim. p. 239°. 
? Mephitis interrupta, Rafinesque, Ann. of Nature, no. 3, p. 4 (1818, descr. orig)*; Dugés, La Nat. 
i. p. 187°. 
* Quad. N. Am. iii. p. 11, pl. cii. 
