84 CARNIVORA. 
animal bears a superficial resemblance to Mephitis mephitica, but will at once be 
recognized by the generic characters pointed out above. 
1. Conepatus mapurito. 
Viverra mapurito, Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 88 (1788, ex Mutis)’. 
Mephitis mapurito, Lichtenstein, Abh. Ak. Berl. 1836, p. 270°. 
Conepatus mapurito, Coues, Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv. ser. 2, no. 1, p. 14°; Fur-bearing Anim. p. 249°, 
Mephitis leuconota, Lichtenstein, Darst. neu. Sadugeth. pl. xliv. fig. 1 (1834, descr. orig.)’. 
Mephitis mesoleuca, Lichtenstem, op. cit. pl. xliv. fig. 2 (1834, descr. orig.)°; Baird, Mamm. N. Am. 
p. 192"; Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. ii., Mamm. p. 19°; Tomes, P. Z.S. 1861, p. 280°. 
Mephitis nasuta, Bennett, P. Z. S. 1833, p. 39 (descr. orig.)”®. 
Thiosmus nasutus, Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 137”. 
Conepatus nasutus, Gray, Cat. Carn. &c. Mamm. Brit. Mus. p. 1384”. 
Mephitis intermedia, de Saussure, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1860, xii. p. 6 (descr. orig.) ™*. 
? Mephitis longicaudata, Tomes, P.Z. 8. 1861, p. 280 (descr. orig.)™. 
Mephitis chilensis, Frantzius, Arch. f. Naturg. xxxv. 1, p. 289 (nec Geoffroy ?)”. 
Zorro hediando of Costa-Ricans. 
Hab. Nort America, Texas*-—Muxico, Rio Alvarado, Chico (Deppe, Mus. Berol.® 6), 
Mexico (de Saussure'*), Guanajuato (Dugés!); Guatemata (Godman & Salvin) ; 
Costa Rica (Frantzius ).—Soutn AMERICA to Patagonia ¢ 
The gradations of colour shown by the South-American Skunks are so numerous, 
and apparently so little connected with geographical distribution, that I must follow 
the late Dr. Gray and Dr. Elliott Coues 4 in regarding them, provisionally at least, 
as varieties of one very variable species. The most usual type in Central America 
appears to be the white-backed, to various modifications of which the names leuconota, 
mesoleuca, nasuta, and intermedia have been applied; but the form in which the white 
is more or less divided into lateral stripes also occurs. I have been unable to identify 
in the British Museum the Guatemalan specimen to which Mr. Tomes gave the provisional 
name of Mephitis longicaudata 4; but from his description I believe it to have been 
an example of the present species, in which the tail was either unusually long or 
had been unduly stretched in preservation. A drawing by Mrs. Salvin of oné of the 
Skunks in the Museum of Guatemala certainly represents Conepatus mapurito. 
Dr. v. Frantzius met with the two-striped variety in Costa Rica, and identified it with 
the Mephitis chilensis of Geoffroy. He gives the following account of its habits, which 
appear to be much the same as those of the North-American species :—“ Like its 
congeners the Chilian Skunk is a nocturnal animal, remaining hidden about human 
habitations by day, and going forth at night to plunder. As it is peculiarly destructive 
to poultry, the Costa-Ricans call this animal Zorro (F ox), or, to distinguish it from 
the Opossum, Zorro hediando, or Stinking-Fox. Often it is surprised in its robberies 
by dogs; and Skunks thus killed are not uncommonly seen lying in the streets of the 
