Howell Generic Names of North American Skunks. 5 



show beyond question that it cannot possibly apply to a Spilo- 

 gale, which has not been done. 



Pursuing the later history of Catesby's species, we discover 

 that his account influenced strongly every author who treated 

 the North American skunks down to the time of Cuvier. 



Kalm, during his travels in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 

 learned of the presence of skunks in that region, where we know 

 Spilogale does not occur, but his account of them,* as Dr. Allen 

 says, is drawn largely from Catesby, and scarcely at all from 

 personal observation. Furthermore, he identifies his Polecat 

 with Catesby's. 



Linnaeus, the next author to treat of the North American 

 skunks, described, in the 10th edition of his Sy sterna Naturae, 

 (1758), under the name Viverra putorius, an animal having 

 four white stripes. He cited Catesby and Kalm. 



Buff on, in 1765, described the same animal under the name 

 of 'Ze conepatej attributing to it five white stripes. His plate 

 is evidently a copy of Catesby's (a point not specifically men 

 tioned by Dr. Allen), and he quotes a long extract from Kalm, 

 choosing his account, rather than Catesby's, probably because 

 it is fuller. 



Schreber, in 1776, under the Linnaean name Viverra putorius, 

 reproduced Catesby's plate again, and quoted Linnaeus, Catesby 

 and Kalm. 



Finally in 1798, Cuvier adopted Buffon's name l le conepate* 

 for a five-striped skunk which he identified with Viverra puto- 

 rius Linn., and renamed Mustela putida. \ 



It will be seen from this resume that the basis of Cuvier's 

 'conepatd is primarily Catesby's Polecat, which has been shown 

 to be a species of Spilogale. The references to Kalm are purely 

 secondary, and should be accorded little weight, in view of the 

 certain fact that Linnaeus, Buffon, and Cuvier all described a 

 species having five (or four) white stripes, and obviously based 

 on Catesby's figure. Not a single element of the two-striped 

 skunk appears anywhere in this chain except in Kalrn's account, 

 where owing to the , absence of Spilogale from the region in 



^Travels, Vol. II, p. 378, Stockholm, 1756. 



fThe reason he excluded Viverra zorilla from his group of mouffcites 

 is because he considered it to be a weasel from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and not a skunk at all. 



