198 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID^E. 



The hairs of the tail which are entirely white (all are usually 

 white basally) are somewhat different in texture from the rest, 

 being even coarser and looser. They appear at the end of the 

 tail in a white tuft that seems to have little connection with the 

 general pelage, and may be early deciduous; or, more curiously, 

 they grow irregularly in various places along the tail, in some- 

 what isolated tascicles. These singular little bundles are also 

 likely to exceed the rest in length, measuring sometimes seven 

 or eight inches in length. Even without taking these into 

 consideration, the bushiness of the tail is som(3times so great 

 that the width when the hairs are extended sideways rather 

 exceeds the total length. The strictly terminal hairs of the 

 tail are ordinarily not so lo:ig as some of those along the sides. 

 Notwithstanding the endless diversity in the extent and de- 

 tails of the white marking, a certain pattern may be indicated 

 as one of reasonable constancy. This is essentially a sharp, 

 narrow, frontal stripe, and a broad nuciial area, from which 

 last proceed obliquely backward a pair of stripes toward or to 

 the tail, continued or not upon this member, and whiteness, to 

 a greater or less extent, of nearly all the hairs of the tail at 

 base, even wiien this member is blackest and least bushy. I 

 have not found the frontal stripe either wholly wanting [Cone- 

 patus) or enlarged into a spot {ISpilogale)^ but it varies from a 

 mere trace to a long streak continuous with fh^ nuchal area, 

 and, doubtless, sometimes fails altogether. This last is usually 

 a large spot, beginning squarely and broadly on the occiput in 

 a line between the ears. From the back of it, the two oblique 

 stripes may immediately diverge, forming a Y, or it may con- 

 tinue for a considerable distance as a single median stripe be- 

 fore forking into two. The nuchal spot may be again entirely 

 disconnected with the dorsal stripes (rare), or may be broken 

 up into a pair of spots ; i. e., the dorsal stripe extended sepa- 

 rately on to the nape. The dorsal stripes may extend scarcely 

 any distance beyond the nape; i. e., may bo represented by 

 only a slight prolongation of a pair of nuchal spots. They may 

 start over the shoulders indei)endently of the white nuchal 

 area. Ordinarily, they reach, widely divergent, more than half- 

 way along the back; again, they are more nearly parallel, and 

 reach to the tail. They may curve toward each other over the 

 Hanks, and even meet there, then completely enclosing an oval 

 vertebral area; or may be interrupted to resume again. They 

 may extend along either side of the tail, in such cases ordina- 

 rily being broken into the curious isolated fascicles of w^hite 



