E. LÖNNBERG, MAMMALOGY OF ECUADOR. 21 



The Tayras of Colombia and western Ecuador must, 

 however, be very nearly related. Their exteriör as well as 

 their cranial measurements appear to be rather similar, which 

 is further proved by the measurements of skulls from Gualea 

 recorded below. 



Another resemblanoe is that T. &. irara often has a 

 whitish patch on the withers, and that such a one also may 

 be present in senilis. Consul Söderström has observed this 

 before, as I ha ve quoted in my former paper (]. c., p. 13), 

 and this time he writes: »It has not been possible to get 

 one of the males with the yellow patch on the back. On 

 the Chone side they used to be very common some förty 

 years ago, when I was living there.» Of the present speci- 

 mens only the female shows a trace of this light patch in 

 the shape of a small spöt of yellowish white hairs on top of 

 the withers. This character is thus variable in senilis as 

 Allén also has stated concerning the Tayra from Colombia 

 which he named irara. Cabrera has pointed out^ that a 

 Tayra from Colombia with such a spöt on the withers has 

 been named himaculata by Martinez which has priority, if, 

 as probably is the case, it refers to the same animal as 

 Allen's irara. Thomas has also observed and made remarks 

 about light spöts on the withers of Tayras from Bogota and 

 the Cauca valley in Colombia, ^ and the present author had 

 also opportunity of stating such spöts on specimens from 

 Merida, Venezuela in Brit. Mus. 



It appears thus, as if Tayras of the bimaculata-type or 

 closely related to the same inhabit northwestern South Ame- 

 rica — Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador — on the western resp. 

 northern side of the Andes mountains not ascending to any 

 very great altitude. On the eastern side of the Andes already 

 in Ecuador T. b. madeirensis is met with. 



' Bol. Real. Soc. espan. Hist. nat. 1915. 

 - Ann. Mag. N. H. (7) V 1900, p. 147. 



