222 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



trausferriug this Pliuian name of certain Musteline ani- 

 mals to those of the Civet-cat group, and in 1758 named a 

 species Yiverra ])utorius. His species at this date was partly 

 based on Kalm's Fh'kaita^ and in so far means the present 

 auimal, but the primary reference is to Catesb;y's Pole-cat, and 

 the description rather suits the Spilogale. In 17G0, Linnaeus 

 made confusion worse confounded by resting his Yiverra puto- 

 ruis not only upon Catesby and Kalm, as he had done in 1758, 

 but by citing also Hernandez, Eay, Seba, and Brisson, his 

 species being consequently a conglomeration of animals not 

 only specifically but generically distinct from each other, though 

 the drift of his descriptive text is toward the present species.* 

 These accounts, and such as hang upon them, are not properly 

 citable in the present connection. About the end of the last 

 century. Dr. G. Shaw introduced a species, Viverra mephitica, 

 which indicates the present animal with sufficient pertinence 

 and exclusiveness, and furnished a specific name, the first tena- 

 ble one I know of. In consequence, however, of its literal re- 

 semblance to the name of the Cuvierian genus Mephitis^ the 

 term slept until revived by Baird in 1857, when, with those to 

 whom the alteration is not objectionable, the binomial name 

 Mepliiiis mcpliitica became current. 



Shortly afterward, in 1808, Tiedemaun introduced a species, 

 M. chinga., adapted from the earlier chinche as a specific name. 

 This was adopted by Lichtenstein in his special memoirs, by 

 Aubudon and Bachman, and by others. It undoubtedly refers 

 to the present animal, though vitiated to some extent by in- 

 applicable expressions. 



Desmarest called all the Skunks Ilejyhitisj Americana, hav- 

 ing a long array of varieties, from A to R, his var. E beiug 

 the one which more particularly refers to the present species. 

 In 1829, Fischer rendered the " chinga'- of Tiedemann as chinche, 

 reverting to the more customary orthography. The same year 

 Richardson introduced a new term, hudsonica. Later, nominal 

 species multiplied, not that there were not already names 



* "Habitat iu America septentrionali. Colore variat. Irritatus (cum urina 

 forte) halitum explodit, quo nihil f(Ptidius ; incessu tardus, nee Homines 

 nee Ferae metuena ; vestes fcttore inqninatie purgantnr sepelieudo per diem. 

 A. Kuhn." (p. C5.) Linnjtus's next species, Viverra ziheiha, the Civet-cat of 

 the Old World, is also tinctured with Skunk, or some other American animal 

 not distantly related. 



+ Written " Mustela " by an obvious slip. 



