242 NORTH AMERICAN MUSTELID.E. 



verse flank stripe, and lengthening into a stripe of the hip-spot, 

 result in three vertical crescentic stripes succeeding each other 

 behind the end of the main lateral stripe, that runs from the ear 

 over the shoulder. Interruption of these transverse crescents 

 may give a set of numerous spots, without traceable stripes, on 

 the hinder half of the body ; indeed, the markings of this part of 

 the body are wholly indefinite. The lateral spots at the root of 

 the tail often fuse into one. The tail is ordinarily black with 

 definite white tip, but may have white hairs mixed with the 

 black throughout, or be all black or all white. The sboulder- 

 stripe sometimes sends short spurs around toward the throat 

 and breast. The chin and upper throat may be perfectly black, 

 or streaked throughout with white. The part of the ear corre- 

 sponding to the white markings about it is commonly light- 

 colored ; the rest of the ear is black. The naked muffle is 

 dark-colored. The claws are dull horn-color. 



The black of this animal is generally quite pure and glossy 

 on every partj but sometimes it has a brownish tinge, espe- 

 cially notable in old museum specimens. 



In this connection, the reader will refer, if he is sufficiently 

 interested to do so, to Plate XII, on which is a wood-engraving 

 of a photograph of two skins, showing the complicated mark- 

 ings very clearly. 



Description of the sTcull and teeth. 



Numerous specimens before me, labelled ^^hicolor^^ and "^o- 

 riUa^\ exhibit surprising variation in size and shape, without, 

 however, warranting presumption that they are not all of the 

 same species. Independently of the usual differences accord- 

 ing to age, there is a remarkable range of variation in the 

 width and depression of the skull behind and development of 

 the occipital crest. An average specimen is selected for de- 

 scription, in which the range of variation will be also noted. 

 Comparative expressions used have reference to the skull of 

 Mephitis mephitica. 



The skull is smaller than that of mephitica; excepting one 

 abnormally large example, all are much less in every dimension 

 than the smallest (adult) skulls of mephitica which I have seen. 

 Viewed from above, the muzzle appears more tapering, if not 

 also relatively shorter; the angle of obliquity of truncation of 

 the nasal orifice is much the same. Supraorbital processes are 

 small, but well defined, as acute eminences, prolonged from 



