SKULL AND TEETH OF CONEPATUS MAPURITO. 255 



lished, it should properly receive a new name upon the new 

 basis, as the best means of avoiding further confusion. 



It may not be amiss to add, that all the recognized South 

 American references are to Conepatus alone, Mephitis proper 

 being not known to occur on that continent. This is a simplifi- 

 cation of matters which does not hold for Central America and 

 Mexico, where the two genera are found together. Neverthe- 

 less, the supposed absence of Mephitis proper from South 

 America rests upon negative evidence. 



Description of the sJcull and teeth. 



In the following description, reference is had to the same 

 parts of M. mephitica^ to which all expressions of comparison 

 apply. The account is based mainly upon No. ^, Mus. Smiths. 

 Inst., from Texas, but several other specimens are examined at 

 the same time. 



Viewed from above, the rostrum is notably tapering — decid- 

 edly more so than in M. mephitica^ though the calibre at the 

 base of the zygomata is even greater. The nasal aperture is 

 much less foreshortened in this view. Supraorbital processes 

 are barely, or not at all, recognizable; the prongs of the sagittal 

 crest are faintly indicated or entirely inappreciable. The point 

 of greatest constriction of the skull (about midway between 

 muzzle and occiput) is well marked and abrupt ; the skull im- 

 mediately swelling behind it, forming a decided projection into 

 the temporal fossa, hardly or not seen in M. 7nephitica. The 

 cranial dome is rather higher and fuller. The zygomatic arches 

 are comparatively shorter, more divergent, and more regularly 

 curved. In profile, the differences are more striking. The 

 highest part of the skull is back over the cranial dome, not at 

 the interorbital space ; the slope is but slight thence to the 

 occipital protuberance, but is long and regular from the same 

 spot to the incisor teeth; for so great is the obliquity of the 

 nasal orifice that the end of the muzzle comes into this general 

 curve, instead of rising, with slight obliquity, from the teeth 

 to then bend abruptly backward at an angle. None of tne 

 specimens, unluckily, are young enough to show the nasal 

 sutures ; but I have no doubt that these bones, if not also the 

 neighboring part of the maxillaries and intermaxillaries, will 

 be found to afford good characters. The anteorbital foramen 

 (as in other species, sometimes subdivided into several separate 

 canals) is farther forward and higher up, piercing a thicker 



