500 On a new Skunk from Peru. 



palate breadth outside w.^ 30 ; greatest diameter of m/ 10*5 ; 

 length of m.i 10. 



A male skull has a basal length of 70 millim. and a zygo- 

 matic breadth of 49 millim. 



Hah. of type Callao, Peru, sea-level. Other specimens 

 from Surco, on the Cordillera behind Lima, alt, 2050 metres. 



Type. Female. B.M. no. 0. 5. 7. 34. Original number 802. 

 Collected 15th January, 1900, by Mr. P. O. Simons. 

 Five specimens examined. Native name " Ailas." 



By this fine capture Mr. Simons has helped to elucidate 

 the question as to what are the skunks referred to by Tschudi 

 in his ' Fauna Peruana ' '^. 



In that work three species are described : — " Mephitis ma- 

 purito, Less., M. Jurcata^ Wagn., and M. amazonica^ Licht." 

 The first of these is said to be " an der Kiiste sehr gemein," 

 and from the description there can be no doubt that Tschudi's 

 animal was G. inca^ which Mr. Simons has sent both from 

 the coast at Callao and from the Sierra behind. The true 

 C. mapurito is quite a different species which occurs at 

 Bogota and north-westwards into Central America. 



By " ilf. /urca^a " Tschudi apparently means the Chilian 

 species, which has been commonly known as C. chi/ensis, was 

 most unnecessarily renamed /wrca^a by Wagner f, but whose 

 proper name appears to be C. ckinga, Molina J. As yet, 

 however, I have seen no Peruvian skunks referable to 

 C. chinga, but it may prove to occur in the southern parts of 

 the country, unless Tschudi has mistaken C. quifensis, Humb., 

 for it. 



I am unable at present to identify Tschudi's " M. ama- 

 zonica, Licht.," but the " drei-streifige Mephitis" o^ which 

 he was told as inhabiting the Department of Junin, will very 

 probably prove to be the remarkably coloured Gonepatus rex, 

 Thos., described from Saharaa, Bolivia §. 



It is curious to notice the great difference in the thickness 

 of the fur between G. inca and G. zorilla, the skunk of the 

 desert on the north-west coast of Peru. Tschudi speaks of 

 G. mapurito as not being found on the coast in the " nord- 

 lichen heisseren Theile des Landes," and this greater heat of 

 that region is well exemplified by the thin sparse coat of 

 G. zorilla as compared with the thick one of the present 

 species. 



* Mamm. p. 112 (1845). 



t Schr. Sauo'. Supp. ii. p. 192 (1841). 



X Viverra chim/a, Molina, Sago;. Stor. Nat. Chili, pp. 288 & 342 (1782). 



§ Ann. .'<• Mag. Nat. Flist. (7) i, p. 278 (1898). 



