Skunks of Eastern North America. 141 



markings very constant, varying only in a trifling difference of length 

 and width of the two lateral white stripes. 



Color. A narrow frontal stripe, nuchal patch, and two lateral bands 

 extending from nuchal patch to and downsides of tail, white; tip of tail 

 often white ; many white or half white hairs mixed in tail ; rest of head, 

 body, tail, arms, and legs, black. Varies in a slight degree only. Occa 

 sionally the white stripes reach only to the middle of sides of back ; the 

 stripes vary in width but little. 



Cranial characters. Skull large and massive, the palate ending in an 

 even curve, without median spine. Size of an old adult male skull (No. 

 3805, Bangs collection from Lake Edward, Quebec) : basilar length, 71.6; 

 occipitonasal length, 74.6 ; zygornatic breadth, 52 ; mastoid breadth, 43.8 ; 

 greatest length of single half of mandible, 52.8. Size of an old adult 

 female skull (No. 3802, Bangs coll. from Lake P'dward, Quebec) : basilar 

 length, 65.2 ; occipitonasal length, 67.2 ; zygornatic breadth, 47.6 ; mastoid 

 breadth, 40.8; greatest length of single half of mandible, 50. 



Size. Old adult <? (No. 2022, Bangs coll. from Digby, Nova Scotia): 

 total length, 682; tail vertebra, 171; hind foot, 83. Old adult 9 (No. 

 3802, Bangs coll. from Lake Edward, Quebec): total length, 565; tail 

 vertebrae, 159 ; hind foot, 75. 



General remarks. The constancy of the markings of Mephitis mephitica 

 typica and the absence of the median spine of the palate are both char 

 acters it possesses in common with the big-tailed western species of the 

 hudsonica group, from which it differs, however, in its shorter tail, taper 

 ing to a pencil, and its smaller size. Its range is very restricted. In its 

 extreme form it occurs only in a narrow belt, including the upper edge of 

 the Canadian and lower edge of the Hudsonian zones. Its exact northern 

 limit is unknown to me, but the evidence seems to indicate that it does 

 not reach very far north. A long line of intermediates extends south 

 ward from northern Maine until the other extreme, M. m. scrutator, is 

 reached in the lower Mississippi Valley. 



Mephitis mephitica scrutator subsp. iiov. 



Type from Cartville, Acadia Parish, Louisiana. No. 2889, ^ old adult, 

 collection of E. A. and O. Bangs. Collected by F. L. Small May 25, 1895. 

 Original No. 1 842. 



Geographic distribution. Pine and prairie regions of central Louisiana, 

 extending up the Mississippi Valley to Indiana and eastward across the 

 Alleghanies to Virginia, and thence northward, gradually becoming less 

 typical, until it merges into true mephitica. 



General characters. Size small; tail medium (actually longer than in 

 mephitica typica), tapering off to a pencil ; feet very small ; markings very 

 variable. 



Color. Color and markings as in true mephitica, but much more vari 

 able. The two lateral white stripes are often so wide as to meet on the 

 back for nearly their whole length, forming the predominating color of 

 the upper parts. In other specimens the lateral stripes are reduced to 



