Vol. X, pp. 139-144 December 28, 1896 



PROCEEDINGS 

 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON Lj i 



THE SKUNKS OF THE GENUS MEPHITIS OF EASTERN 

 NORTH AMERICA. 



BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



In 1895* I described a new skunk from Florida as a sub- 

 species of the northern Mephitis mephilica (Shaw), and at the 

 same time reviewed, in ratlier an informal way, tlie eastern mem- 

 bers of the genus Mephitis. Since then I have learned more 

 about the distribution of the eastern skunks and have seen many 

 additional specimens, so that some of my former views have 

 changed. I now consider the Florida elonc/ata entitled to specific 

 rank, and still another form from the Mississippi Valley entitled 

 to recognition. The latter form, which I shall call Mephitis me- 

 phitica scrutator, is common in the pine and prairie region of 

 central Louisiana, and extends northward up the Mississippi 

 Valley and eastward through the Alleghany Mountains, grad- 

 ually shading into true mephitica. Specimens from the central 

 region from Virginia to Maine are ty[)ical of neither form. M. 

 mephitica ti/pica occurs only in high Canadian and Hudsonian 

 regions. M. elongata is abundant, though locally distributed, 

 over the greater part of |)eninsular Florida and extends up the 

 Atlantic coast at least to southern South Carolina or northern 

 Georgia, where it gradually ceases, and no skunk is found through- 

 out eastern North Carolina, f thus leaving e/ou^a^a and mephitica, 



* Notes on North Aiiiericau Mammals, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. xxvi, author's edition, Jul}^ 31, 1895. 



t Mes-srs. H. H. and C S. Brhnley, in fourteen years of constant col- 

 lecting about Raleigh, N. C. , have never seen a skunk there, and have 

 only known one to be reported as having been killed. I have made many 

 inquiries of farmers throughout eastern North Carolina and have always 

 got the same answer, that there are no skunks there. Of course, elongata 

 or mephitica might be expected to occur occasionally as stragglers. 



3ii— Bioi,. Soc. Wash., Vor,. X. 1890 (1.39) 



