490 Mr. O. 'Thomas on small Mammals 
Tn this collection there is an interesting amount of geogra- 
phical isomorphism. Thus there are two species of skunks, 
both with white tails, being almost the only white-tailed 
skunks known. And there are no less than five different 
Murines (Andinomys edax, two species of Phyllotis, and two 
of Graomys) so similar inter se externally that they might all 
be mistaken for a single species at different stages of age. 
So striking a case of local resemblance between different 
animals I do not remember ever to have seen before. 
1. Conepatus budini, sp. n. 
3. 334. 
A rather small skunk with a conspicuous bushy white tail. 
The upper molar large. 
Size a little less than in C. gibson?, therefore distinctly 
less than in any other S.-American species except the much 
smaller C. proteus. Fur thick and abundant, with the usual 
woolly underfur ; direction of nape-hairs in the type abso- 
Jutely normal, without whorls or reversed hairs. White 
stripes of body about an inch or a little less in breadth, 
united on the forehead by a junction of about the same 
breadth, and evenly divergent posteriorly, the black median 
area about 1-1} inch broad on the nape, widening to 23 on 
the posterior back ; the white bands dying away on the hip, 
about 2 inches before the white of the tail commences. ‘Tail 
very fine and bushy, the hairs attaining about 100 mm. in 
leneth ; a little white on each side of the tail-base, then a 
small black median patch on its upper base; the whole 
remainder of the tail white, apart from the presence of a few 
isolated and scarcely perceptible black hairs intermixed with 
the white. 
Skull alone exceeding that of C. proteus in size, its breadth, 
especially its mastoid breadth, rather greater than usual in 
proportion to its length, though the specimen is not very old. 
Mesopterygoid fossa comparatively broad. Upper molar 
large, subquadrangular, with its antero-posterior diameter 
exceeding the outer length of p*. 
Dimensions of the type :— 
Head and body 340 mm.; tail* 240; hind foot 55; 
ear 30. 
Skull: greatest (diagonal) length 71:5; condylo-basal 
length 66°5 ; zygomatic breadth 45 ; interorbital breadth 23 ; 
intertemporal breadth 18°5; mastoid breadth 393; palatal 
length 235; breadth across m' 28; breadth of mesopterygoid 
* The tail, apparently perfect, is now barely 200 mm. in length. 
Perhaps 240 is a /apsus calami on the part of the collector. 
