204 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID^. 



and the angle' itself is scarcely or not at all exflected (cf. Cone- 

 patus). The angle itself is obtuse, and there is a decided neck 

 in the outline thence to the condyle. The condyle is horizontal, 

 transverse, very narrow, and acute internally; on the outer 

 half, its articular surface looks upward ; on the inner half, 

 backward. The coronoid process rises straight and high, nearly 

 uniformly tapering to the apex, a perpendicular from which 

 falls decidedly in advance of the condyle (cf. Conepatus). The 

 general muscular impression on its outer face is well marked. 

 It is pointed below, and reaches forward on the ramus to a point 

 underneath the last lower molar (cf. Conepatus). 



As remarked under the head of Conepatus^ the dental formula 

 of the genera of Mephitiiue does not, in point of fact, differ. 

 The difference is 7nl as between Mephitis and Spilogale, while in 

 Conepatus a supposed lesser number of teeth is only true in the 

 very small size of the abortive, deciduous, or, at any rate, not 

 functionally developed anterior upper premolar. In Mephitis^ 

 also, the tooth may be very small, or even abortive, on one or 

 both sides of the jaw : it is, however, normally present and 

 readily recognizable. 



Selecting an average skull, of middle age, with fully devel- 

 oped, yet little-worn, dentition (for in very old skulls the teeth 

 are so ground down as not to furnish fair characters), we ob- 

 serve the following points : — 



The back upper molar is the largest of the grinders, about as 

 long as broad, quadrate, with rounded inner corners, and en- 

 tirely tuberculous. It is completely divided across lengthwise 

 by a sulcus, on the outer side of which is a narrow portion, much 

 higher than the broad inner portion, and separated from it not 

 only by the groove across the face of the tooth, but by a nick 

 in the hinder border. This elevated outer moiety is oblique on 

 its face from the general level of the dentition ; it runs to a 

 point at its fore and hind ends, and has a central, slightly exca- 

 vated field, with irregular-raised boundary. The flatter inner 

 moiety of the tooth is chiefly occupied by a large antero-internal 

 tubercle, separated by a curved sulcus from a posterior raised 

 margin. The next tooth — back premolar — differs altogether 

 from the same flesh-tooth in the Mustelime. It is relatively 

 smaller, and has not a prominent isolated antero-internal fang. 

 On the contrary, it is triangular in general outline, the inner 

 corner of the triangle representing the fang of the Mustelime 

 just named J t^his is cuspidate, but this whole inner moiety is 



