186 Merriam A New Bassariscus from Lower California. 



tals more abruptly elevated above rostrum ; postorbital processes more 

 strongly developed ; last upper molar decidedly smaller ; upper carnassial 

 with inner lobe more rectangular. 



Measurements (type specimen). Total length, 737; tail vertebrae, 370; 

 hind foot, 60. 



REMARKS ON BASSARISCUS RAPTOR (BAIRD). 



Baird's type specimen of Bassariscus raptor was killed in the 

 city of Washington, D. C., where it was killing poultry. That it 

 had recently escaped from confinement was shown by the con 

 spicuous collar-mark around its neck, which is still prominent 

 in the dry skin. The specimen is now preserved in the National 

 Museum, and was evidently first kept in alcohol and afterward 

 skinned, as shown by the yellow discoloration of the pelage and 

 by the puckered and hardened condition of the footpads. 



I have compared both the skin and skull of this specimen with 

 specimens from northern California and Oregon, and find that 

 they agree closely in all respects, except the interpterygoid fossa, 

 which is abnormally broad in the type specimen. The number 

 and breadth of the black bands on the tail correspond with speci 

 mens from Oregon and northern California. The skull is a little 

 larger than that of any Oregon specimen in the Department 

 collection, but is almost exactly matched by a specimen from 

 Glen Ellen, California. 



Mr. S. N. Rhoads has renamed Bassariscus raptor (Baird), calling 

 it B. oregonus (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1893, p. 416), 

 but I cannot see any way by which Baird's earlier name can be 

 displaced by a more modern one, unless it can be proved that 

 Baird's animal is not the form from the northwest coast, with 

 which it agrees in every particular. There is a curious incon 

 sistency in Mr. Rhoads' treatment of the species. On page 414 

 he says that the form from the northwest coast u may require to 

 be varietally distinguished under the name raptor Baird, this 

 name doubtless referring to the Pacific coast form, as already ex 

 plained." Two pages later (p. 416) he says, " the small dark 

 coast form from northern California northward (not of central 

 and southern California) should be made a subspecies of flavus. 

 In that case it should be called Bassariscus flavus oregonus." 



It is of course unfortunate that the type locality of Baird's 

 specimen is not positively known, but Baird's repeated state 

 ment that it probably came from California was doubtless based 

 on some information which he did not at the time care to pub- 



