162 Merriam Six New Skunks, 



white except at base underneath, which is black.* Skull relatively 

 high; anterior nares large and obliquely truncate (broadly open as seen 

 from above); ascending arm of premaxillie reduced to a slender oblique 

 splint; nasals and maxillae ending posteriorly on essentially same plane; 

 anterior part of nasals (in profile) essentially in fronto-nasal plane (not 

 upturned or pugged); postorbital constriction slight; antorbital foramen 

 single throughout. 

 The new forms are: 



Conepatus leuconotus texensis subsp. nov. 



Type locality. Brownsville, Lower Rio Grande, Texas. Type No. 

 Iff II $ a( ^-> U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Collection. July 

 20, 1892. F. B. Armstrong. Original No. 70. 



Range. Coast strip of Texas from Rockport, Aransas County, to 

 mouth of Rio Grande; may extend southward into Tamaulipas. 



Characters. Similar to leuconotus but somewhat larger, with white 

 dorsal area more restricted, usually contracting on rump to a narrow 

 stripe and in some specimens disappearing altogether, leaving the rump 

 largely or wholly black. Usually a narrow white line connects the white 

 dorsal area with the white of the tail. Black of underside of tail more 

 extensive than in leuconotus, usually spreading over sides of base, and 

 reaching out on underside at least one-third and often one-half the 

 distance from base to tip [in leuconotus ending opposite toes of out 

 stretched hind feet]. 



Measurements. Average of 4 males from type locality: total length 

 825; tail vertebra? 365; hind foot 86. Average of 4 females from same 

 place: total length 708; tail vertebrae 292; hind foot 76. Largest skull 

 of $ : basal length 77; zygomatic breadth 55.5; palatal length 35; upper 

 molar on outer edge 10. Largest skull of 9 '- basal length 66; zygomatic 

 breadth 48; palatal length 31; upper molar on outer edge 9.5. 



Conepatus sonoriensis sp. nov. 



Type locality. Camoa, Rio Mayo, Sonora, Mexico. Type No. 95,914, 

 9 yg. ad., U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Collection. 

 October 29, 1898. E. A.Goldman. Original No. 13,213. 



Range. Northwestern Mexico from Valparaiso Mountains, Zacatecas, 

 northwesterly over Sinaloa (specimens from Santa Cruz de Alaya) and 

 into Sonora for an unknown distance (specimens from Camoa, Rio Mayo). 



Characters. Size large (hind foot in $ about 85; in 9 about 80); 



*Sometimes a few black hairs are inconspicuously mixed in the white 

 of the tail. In some specimens of C. leuconotus texensis the white dorsal 

 band fails on the rump; with this exception the color-pattern as above 

 described is constant throughout the group. 



