MAMMALS MELINAE MEPHITIS MEPHITICA. 



195 



List of specimens. 



Catalogue \ Corresponding 

 numbers. | No of skull. 



1944 



Locality. 



Whence obtained. 



2031 

 2434 

 2617 



Nature of specimen. 



Santa Clara, Cal. 

 Petaluma, Cal 

 ..do.. 



Dr. J. G. Cooper ' Skull 



E. Samuels do. 



..do.. . Skin. 



Fort Steilacoom, "W. T Dr. G. Suckley 



.do. 



MEPHITIS MEPHITICA. 



Skunk. 



Picerra mephitica, SHAW, Museum Leverianum, 1792, 172; plate. IB. Gen. Zool. I, 1800, 390. 

 JUtphitii chinga, TIEDEMANN, Zool. I, 1808, 362. (In part.) 



LICHT. Darst. Saugt. 1827-34; plate xlv, f. 1. IB. Ueber Mephitis, Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berl. for 



1836, (183b,) 280. 



MAXIM. Reise Nord. Amur. I, 1839, 250. 

 WAGNER, Suppl. Schreb. II, 1841, 198. 

 AUD. & BACH. N. A. Quad. I, 1849, 317; pi. xlii. 

 GIEBEL, Saugt. 1855, 766. 



Mustcla (Mephitis') americana, DESM. Mamm. I, 1820, 186. 

 Mephitis americana, Jos. SABINE, Zool. App. Franklin's Tourney, 1823, 653. 

 HARLAV, Fauna Americana, 1825, 70. 

 DOUGHTY'S Cab. N. H. II, 1832, 193; pi. xvii. 

 DEKAT, N. Y. Zool. I, 1842, 29; pi. xii, f. 1. 

 Mephitis americana var. hudsonica, RICH. F. B. A. I, 1829, 55. 

 Chincha americana, LESSON, Nouv. Tabl. R. A. 1842, 67. 

 Mephitis chinche, (Tied.) FISCHER, Syn. 1829, 160, (in part.) 

 Le chincht, ST. HIL. & Cov. Hist, des Mammif. II, 1819; plate. (Louisiana ) 



SP. CH. Soles naked, except on the posterior third. Tail vertebrae half the length of head and body, with hairs considerably 

 less. Color black; a narrow frontal line; a broad triangular nuchal patch, continuous, with a narrow line on either side of the 

 back, nearly to the tail, and a tuft at the end of the tail, white. The dorsal stripes sometimes broader; sometimes wanting, as 

 also the nuchal patch. 



This species varies considerably in its markings, though individuals from the same locality 

 are usually quite similar. In a series of five specimens from Middleboro', Massachusetts, the 

 prevailing color is, of course, black. There is a narrow white line on the forehead. Just back 

 of the ears, on the nape, commences a broad triangular patch of yellowish white, the base 

 anteriorly a transverse straight line of about two inches in width, and the length about one-half 

 greater. On the upper part of the neck, confluent with this patch, commence two narrow lines 

 of white, one on each side, which run parallel to each other for a few inches, then diverge rapidly 

 and cease abruptly a little beyond the middle of the body. The tail is black, with a narrow tuft 

 of white in the extreme tip ; all the caudal hairs are white at the base. There is also a small 

 tuft of white hairs on each side of the tail near the base. One specimen lacks the terminal 

 white tuft, but this appears to have been lost or not grown out. In those possessing it the 

 white hairs project many inches beyond the end of the black ones, and are of a different texture. 



A skin from Washington city is black, with the frontal narrow white line, and a crescentic 

 white patch on each side of the head, behind the ear ; no nuchal patch whatever; there is a 



