Ai:r. 1 MAMMALS FROM OHII^TA HOWELL 29 



and eyes, thus having one of the characters upon which tshif/tanensis 

 was founded. This, however, is variable in this genus and the valid- 

 ity of the latter name, as well as of hanensis, is open to question. 



MELES AMURENSIS Schrenck 



Meles taxus var. amurensis Schrenck, Reise Ainur-land, vol. 1, 1858, pi. 1 

 ( northern Manchuria ) . 



specimens. — Two from Manchuria — one from the Sungaree Kiver 

 and the other from an unknown locality. 



It is probable that amurensh is a good race but a dependable de- 

 scription of it seems to be lacking and specimens scarce. The two in 

 hand are allocated by locality alone for one is a mere baby, very dark 

 except for extensive white tipping of the guard hairs and pure white 

 tail, while the other, which is a trade skin without skull and pur- 

 chased at Tientsin, is very old. The whole dorsum is yellowish white 

 with darker areas near the ends of the guard hairs only along the 

 middorsum. 



Genus ARCTONYX F. Cuvier 



ARCTONYX LEUCOLAEMUS LEUCOLAEMUS (Milne-Edwards) 



Meles iArctonyx) leucolaemus Milne>-Edwabds, Rech. Manim., 1871, p. 195 

 (Peking, Chihli, China). 



Specimens. — Four: 80 miles east of Peking, Chihli, 1; Ningpo, 

 Chekiang, 2; and Kuatun, Fukien, 1. 



The specimen from Chihli, which is undoubted leucolc(£7nus, is 

 rather light about the head and the hairs of the posterior half of the 

 dorsum lack white tips, both of which are characters considered to be 

 individually variable. This is fairly between two skins from Ningpo 

 representing two extremes of head coloration. In one there are 

 hardly any dark markings while in the other the white nose stripe 

 extends only to just above the eyes. This illustrates the rashness of 

 coining new names for such carnivores when material is too scanty 

 for gaining a proper appreciation of the range of individual varia- 

 tion. 



ARCTONYX LEUCOLAEMUS OBSCURUS Milne-Edwards 



Arctonyx olscunis Milne-Edwaeds, Rech. Mamm.. 1871, p. 338 ("Chinese 

 IMbet '■ = Yunnan ov extreme southwestern Szechwan). 



Specimens. — Four; Minshan Mountains, Kansu, 1; Mount Omei, 

 2, and Washan, 1, both in Szechwan. 



I can not see the slightest reason why all the Chinese members of 

 this genus should not be considered as races of a singjle species. 

 Furthermore, all the external characters, at least of the three forms 

 most recently named — orestes, incultus, and milne-edwardsi — are 

 believed to fall well within the limits of individual variation of these 

 most variable carnivores. In fact, most of these differences occur in 



