182 BULLETIN OF THE 



and still more or less common in the mountainous and sparsely settled 

 parts of the State. 



Quite variable in color, the variations on the one hand tending strongly 

 towards melanism and on the other towards albinism. On specimens pre- 

 senting the latter kind of variation seems to have been founded the Procyon 

 nivea of Gray from Texas,* as probably also the P. psora of Gray f from 

 California. % With the variations in the general tint the markings usually 

 become more or less indistinct. In even what may be considered as the 

 normal or average type the dark rings of the tail vary from four to six 

 in number, in intensity of color, and in relative breadth to the interspaces; 

 sometimes the dark rings are only about half the width of the intervening 

 lighter ones, but, as I have observed to be the case in numerous specimens 

 killed in Massachusetts, Western New York, and Florida, they often equal, 

 and not unfrequently exceed them. The tail varies also in its form and size, 

 as it does in the foxes and marmots, sometimes tapering considerably to- 

 wards the tip, though generally but slightly. Yet these characters have 

 been assumed by some authors to be indicative of specific differences, the 

 Procyon Hernandezii of Wagler§ having been founded originally on such 

 slight variations. Professor Baird, however, has gone quite fully into a dis- 

 cussion of its merits as a species, |] but the distinctions he particularly men- 

 tions as separating it from P. lolor — the more tapering form of the tail, 

 the rings of which he deems " narrower and better defined," with " the light 

 intervals wider," and a " nearly constant difference in the color of the 

 upper surface of the hind feet," which he says is darker in P. Her- 

 nandezii — are so slight, and based withal on characters so exceedingly 

 liable to variation, that they can scarcely be considered as of specific 

 value. Though apparently of somewhat larger size the relatively largei 

 and stouter feet claimed by him to distinguish P. Hernandezii his meas- 

 urements seem to scarcely sustain. lie admits that P. Hernandezii 

 bears a very close relationship to the /'. lolor, and says that " without 

 close comparison the differences are perhaps intangible," and that " its 

 characteristics are more comparative than absolute." Still " an examina- 

 tion of a large number of North American raccoons," he affirms, " has 

 resulted in the appreciation of certain differences which appear quite 

 constant." They arc those above specified, and, as I have already ob- 



* Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. 1,1837, p. 580. 

 t Ann. ami Mag. Nat. Hist , Vol. X, 1842, p. 207. 



I In his recent revision of tlie " Ursine Animals," Dr. Gray has referred both these to 

 the P. lolor. See Proc. Lond. Zool. Soc, 1SG4, p. G84. 

 $ Isis, XXIV, 1881, p. 514. 

 H See N. Am. Mam., p. 213, and Mex. Bound. Survey, Vol. II, Mammals, p. 22. 



