178 BULLETIN OF THE 



Report on the Mammalia of New York, published in 18-12 (p. 28), says : 

 " Professor Emmons states that they still exist in the Hoosac Moun- 

 tains, Massachusetts." But the species is not given in Emmons's lie- 

 port, published two years before; it occurs, however, in Dr. Hitch- 

 cock's List, with the following note: "On Hoosac Mts. ; rare. — 

 Emmons." It is more or less common from Northern New England 

 to the Arctic coast. 



This species is remarkable for being the only one in the Mammalian 

 Fauna of the State usually regarded as common to both the Eastern and 

 Western Hemispheres. The existence in all together of but two or three 

 circumpolar species of land mammals is admitted by many naturalists. 

 It must also present an unusual constancy of character, since not only 

 has it escaped subdivision into pseudo-species, but even no "varieties" 

 have been generally recognized. 



12. Lutra canadensis Sabine. (Latax canadensis Gray ; Lutra 

 canadensis and L. destructor Barnston.*) Otter. Not rare ; still not 

 often captured. At Springfield I have known some half-dozen speci- 

 mens taken in the last ten years. 



13. Mephitis mephitica Baird. (M. chinga Tiedemann ; M. 

 various Gray ; M. mesomelas and M. chinga Maximilian.) Skunk. 

 Abundant. Individuals from the same locality, and even from the 

 same litter, are very variable in color, some being almost entirely black, 

 while others have a very large proportion of white. The amount of 

 baldness on the soles of the feet is also very variable, independently 

 of season or age, although this has been deemed by some naturalists, as 

 Lichtenstein and others, as a character of great importance. Attention 

 has been previously called to its inconstancy .f 



Probably no other North American mammal is so strikingly variable in 

 color as the common skunk ; it is hence not surprising that foreign natu- 

 ralists, unacquainted with the animal in life, have made of it a considerable 

 number of supposed species. So well known is this variability to most 

 persons at all familiar with the animal that it is all the more unexpected 

 to find from a naturalist so justly reputed for accuracy as the author of the 

 Report on the Mammals of North America a statement like the following: 

 " This species varies considerably in its markings, though individuals from 

 the same locality arc usually (juite similar." X Especially is this so after the 



* Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, April, 1863, p. 147. 



t See Dr. J. E. Gray's Review of the Mustelida;, Pvoc. Loud. Zool. Soc, 1865, p. 147. 



t Mam. N. Amer., p. 195. 



