102 MAMMALIA. 



ted with white about the head, and distinguished from 

 the preceding ones by the extension of the hair to the under 

 surface of the toes. It inhabits the coldest mountains, and the 

 hunting to obtain it, in the midst of winter and tremendous 

 snows, is a perilous and painful undertaking. It is to the pur- 

 suit of this animal that we owe the discovery of the eastern 

 countries of Siberia. 



North America also possesses several Martens indicated by 

 naturalists and travellers, under the indefinite names of Pekan, 

 Vison, Mink, Sec. 



One of them, the White Vison of the furriers, Mus. leutreoce- 

 phala, Harl., has as hairy feet and almost as soft a fur as the 

 Sable, but is of a light fawn colour, and almost white about the 

 head. 



That which we call the Pckan; Must, canadensis, Gm., and 

 which comes from Canada and the United States, is of a brown- 

 ish colour, mixed with white on the head, neck, shoulders and 

 top of the back; nose, crupper, tail and limbs blackish. (l) 



Mephitis, Cuv. 



The Skunk, like the Polecat, has two false molars above and three 

 below, but the superior tuberculous one is very large, and as long 

 as it is broad, and the inferior carnivorus has two tubercles on its 

 internal side, circumstances which ally it to the Badger just as the 

 Polecat approximates to the Grison and Glutton. Independently 

 of this, the anterior nails of the Skunk, like those of the Badger, are 

 long and fitted for digging ; they are moreover semi-plantigrade, and 

 the resemblance extends even to the distribution of their colours. 

 The whole family are remarkable for their fetid exhalations, but the 

 Skunk is pre-eminently distinguished by its most horrible and suf- 

 focating stench. 



Skunks are generally marked with white stripes on a black 

 ground, but the number of stripes appears to vary in the same 

 species. The most common species of North America is the 

 M. putorius.; Viverra putor., Gm.; Catesb. Carol. II, Ixii. 

 Schreb. CXXII. (The American Skunk.) Black, with stripes 

 of white, larger or smaller, and more or less numerous ; the tail 

 is black, and the tip white. The odour it produces resembles 



(1) It is the Pekan of Daubenton, but it has not always the white under the 

 throat. [See Append. V. of Jim. Ed.'] 



There are several other species of Polecats or of Martens indicated by MM. 

 Molina, Humboldt and Harlan ; but they require re-examination. 



