44 ZOOLOGY. 



down the coast they are more abundant, and the capture of the sea otter off southern California 

 employs quite a number of men and several boats. I saw, in San Francisco, a number (one 

 hundred or more) of their skins, some of enormous size and great beauty. The largest were 

 full six feet long, and had evidently once belonged to animals considerably larger than those 

 upon which descriptions have been based. This lot of skins was offered us at thirty dollars 

 each ; less than half the price they formerly bore. 



A curious fact, as illustrative of the aquatic habit of the sea otter, was related by one of the 

 hunters. He said he had seen the female with very small young at sea, forty miles from shore, 

 but that generally they are found on soundings, and particularly where the gigantic kelp 

 (Macrocystis) raises its cable-like stem, and expands its broad leaf on the surface of the water. 

 After the seal this animal is undoubtedly the most aquatic of the carnivorous mammalia. 



MEPHITIS OCCIDENTALS, B a i r d . 



California Sknnk. 



Mephitis occidenlalis, Baird, Gen. Rep. 1857, 194. 



? Mephitis mesomehis, St. Hilaire, Voy. de la Venus, Zoologie, I, 1855, 133 : plate. 



Sp. Ch. — Size of a cat. Tail vertebras two-thirds the length of head and body, Bony palate with small narrow emar- 

 gination in the middle of its posterior edge. Color black, with a white nuchal patch, bifurcating behind and reaching to 

 the tail, which is entirely black. 



Aside from the little zorilla, one or more species of a larger size inhabit California. HI, bicolor, 

 as I have said in speaking of that species, inhabits the more southern portions of the State, 

 where it is associated with at least one larger species. North of Benicia skunks are not 

 unknown, as we had both ocular and nasal evidence, for it not unfrequently happened, as on 

 our march we dipped down with our train into some quiet valley, that the breath of evening 

 or early morning would come to us freighted with the odors characteristic of the genus. I saw 

 several of these animals which had been killed, but they were so much decomposed as to render 

 their identification difficult if not impossible. 



MEPHITIS BICOLOK. 



Little Striped Skunk. 



Mephitis bicolor, J. E. Gray, Charlesworth' s Mag. N. H. I, 1837, 581. 

 Mephitis zorilla, Lichtenstein. 



Aud. & Bach. N. Am. Quad. Ill, 1S54, 276, (not figured. 



Baird, Gen. Bep. Mammals, 1857, 197. 



Sp. Ch. — Smallest of North American species. Tail vertebra; less than half the body ; with the hairs, not much more 

 than half. Black, with a broad white patch on forehead, and crescent before each ear ; four parallel dorsal stripes inter- 

 rupted and broken behind ; a shorter stripe on side of belly, running into a posterior transverse crescent, which are white. 

 Tail black throughout to base of hairs, except a pure white pencil at the end. 



This elegant little skunk, so handsomely marked and clothed in a coat so soft and silken, 

 presents, in all but the most striking characteristics of the genus, a marked contrast to the 

 larger species so common in the eastern States, (31. chinga.) 



It is a southern species, of the range of which San Francisco is probably about the northern 

 limit. From San Francisco southward it becomes more common, extending quite into Mexico, 

 and probably across the continent into Texas. 



This animal is so prettily marked, that, on looking over our collections, even ladies, ignorant 



