188 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



different from the JfusteUncv iu general external appearance as 

 well as in structural characters. The closest relationships of 

 the Skunks are with the Badgers (subfamily Melinm) ; the 

 affinities of these two being so well marked that some anthors 

 have combined them in the same subfamily. The Skunks and 

 Badgers agree in many points of external conformation; in fact, 

 Conepahis ma^nirito, one of the Skunks, is almost as much of a 

 Badger, to all outward appearance. They are terrestrial ani- 

 mals, of more or less perfected fossorial habits; the walk is 

 plantigrade; the fore claws are enlarged, straightened, and 

 well fitted for digging. The general form is very stout; the 

 legs are short, and the body consequently low ; the tail is more 

 or less bushy, and the whole pelage is loose. The physiognomy 

 is somewhat hog-like, especially in the Badgers and in Conepatus^ 

 owing to the production and enlargement of the snout. These 

 animals neither climb trees nor swim in the water; their gait 

 is comparatively slow and lumbering ; their retreats are bur- 

 rows in the ground, dens iu rocks or logs, or sometimes the 

 shelter afforded by out-of-the-way nooks in human habitations. 

 Some of the species hibernate. 



Cranial and dental cliaracters. 



There is also a singular cranial character by which the Skunks 

 and Badgers may be collectively distinguished from any other 

 Korth American Mustelida\ The conduit of the posterior nares 

 is completely separated into right and left passages by a vertical 

 bony septum, which extends to the hind end of the palate. In 

 all the other 2lustelid(v treated in this work, the posterior nares 

 are thrown into one channel by total lack, posteriorly, of any 

 such partition. 



Nevertheless, the structural characters of most weight in 

 classification are abundantly sufficient to mark off Mephitinm 

 and Melinw as groups differing from each other as much as most 

 other subfamilies of the Mustelidw do. Eeference to the tables 

 of characters already given (pp. 7, 8) will show this. Here I 

 may recall some of the leading peculiarities of the Mephitincv. 



The skull of any Skunk may be known at a glance, on com- 

 parison with that of any other Musteline animal, by the depth 

 of the emarginatiou between the pterygoids, which is always 

 much greater than the distance from the end of this emargina- 

 tiou to the molars. The post-molar portion of the bony palate 



