SKULL AND TEETH OF MEPHITIS MEPHITICA. 203 



inflation of the bullae. These are decidedly convex only at one 

 place, interiorly, elsewhere flat, and outwardly produced to 

 form a tubular meatus. Traces of separation from surrounding 

 parts long persist, at least in front. About the bullge are seen 

 the following foramina : one in advance, just inside the glenoid 

 fossa ', two at the anterior extremity of the bulla ; three along 

 its inner border ; one more exterior, near the mastoid ,• one far 

 posterior, in the occipital. The basi-sphenoid suture, early 

 obliterated, is straightly transverse in advance of the middle 

 of the bullae. The general basilar area is flat, narrowing for- 

 ward, unmarked, or with merely a slight median ridge. The 

 border of the foramen magnum represents a deep emargination 

 of the posterior border of this area, with the condylar protuber- 

 ance on either side. 



All the bones of the skull finally coossify, excepting, of course, 

 the mandible, and most are joined at a comparatively early age. 

 The periotic and internasal sutures persist the longest; the 

 latter after the nasals are consolidated with the maxillaries, and 

 the former after the basi-spheno-occipital suture is obliterated. 

 When found separate, the nasals are seen to be regularly con- 

 cave along their exterior border, truncate anteriorly, with a 

 produced antero-lateral corner, and received by a pointed pro- 

 cess in a recess of the frontal. The intermaxillary bone forms 

 less than half of the general naso-maxillary suture. The max- 

 illary extends within a short distance of the supraorbital pro- 

 tuberance. The malar is. rather small, and fuses early with the 

 rest of the zygomatic arch. The occipital bone is rather late to 

 coossify; the supraoccipital is then seen to represent most of 

 the lambdoidal crest, reaching, on either hand, from the median 

 line half-way to the mastoid process j thence crossing this crest 

 to the paroccipital, whence the suture runs on the floor of the 

 skull along the border of the periotic by the foramen lacerum 

 posterius to the basi-sphenoid ; thence straight across the me- 

 dian line. 



The lower jaw in Mephitince is never locked, as far as known, 

 in the glenoid by the clasping of the condyle in the embrace of 

 the fossa, as is the rule, in adult life, in Meles and in Taa^i- 

 dea, and as sometimes occurs in the Otters (Lutrince). The 

 ramus of the mandible is stout and nearly straight along the 

 tooth-bearing portion ; the symphysis is thick, short, abruptly 

 ascending obliquely forward. Between the ramus proper and 

 the angle of the jaw, the lower border is decidedly emarginate. 



