MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 179 



detailed account given by Audubon and Bachman of very wide differences 

 in color between individuals of the same litter.* The majority of the Mas- 

 sachusetts specimens I have seen accord very well with Professor Baird's 

 diagnosis, the general color being black, with a narrow white streak down 

 the face, a large white nuchal patch, and a broad white streak on each 

 side of the back reaching commonly nearly to the tail, which is tipped 

 with the same color. Sometimes the face streak is united with the nuchal 

 patch, but oftener it is separated by a narrow space of black, and is oc- 

 casionally absent. The dorsal streaks vary in breadth and posterior extent, 

 generally enclosing a narrow band of black ; but the latter is sometimes 

 wanting, when they, uniting along the median line, form but one ; they run 

 nearly parallel or widely diverge posteriorly, where frequently each is deeply 

 bifid ; more frequently than otherwise they entirely cease near the loins. 

 The nuchal patch also varies in form and extent ; generally it is contin- 

 uous with the dorsal streaks, but is often entirely separate from them, and 

 is itself sometimes divided, forming two small lateral patches ; its general 

 outline is variable almost beyond description. The white on the tail is 

 sometimes terminal and sometimes basal ; now and then it is quite absent, 

 but occasionally it preponderates over the black. The distinct terminal 

 pencil of long white hairs in the tail, so often described, seems generally 

 best defined in young specimens ; in full-grown ones it is frequently absent. 

 Individuals occasionally occur that are either entirely, or almost entirely, 

 black ; much more rarely others with nearly the whole of the dorsal sur- 

 face white, as in a specimen in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 collected in Newton, Mass., by Mr. C. J. Maynard. This has the black 

 restricted to a narrow dorsal line, a few scattering hairs in the tail and 

 to the lower surface of the body, the white dorsal band being nearly two 

 inches broad on the neck and seven at the loins. Mr. Maynard has 

 another specimen, taken at the same locality, which has still more white, 

 there being no black median line, and the white extends still lower on the 

 sides of the body. In short, the variations in color in the skunks are 

 almost endless, scarcely any two specimens being quite alike. It therefore 

 seems preposterous to found species on particular styles of coloring, or on 

 the relative proportion and distribution of white and black, as several 

 authors have done. 



Eight species were described by Lichtenstein in his monograph of 

 the genus Mephitis); from Mexico and the United States alone, while from 

 North and South America together he gave sixteen ! Professor Baird 

 recognized six in his Report, and mentions three others described by 



* Quad. N. Amer., Vol. I. p. 319. 



t Ueber die Gattung Mephitis, Afhand. Akad. Wiss., Berlin, for 1836, 1833, pp. 249- 

 315, and 2 plates. 



