MAMMALS URSIDAE PROCYON HERNANDEZII. 213 



in white paint, except on the upper surface. The end of the muzzle in both jaws is white, as 

 also a stripe extending "backwards from the angle of the mouth to the sides of the neck. There 

 is also a broad whitish border to the posterior edge of the cheek patch. The basal portion of 

 the convexity of the ear and a patch behind and below it are sooty brown ; the part projecting 

 beyond the hair is dull whitish. The upper surface of the hind feet, except along the inner 

 edge, is liver brown; the fore feet dull grayish. The under surfaces of the body are dull hoary. 

 The tail is rather more than half the length of the head and body ; it is- moderately bushy, but 

 narrower than in P. lotor, and tapers slightly to the tip. The tail itself is of a light rusty 

 whitish, with a tip and five distinct annulations of black, and two other basal ones very obscurely 

 indicated. The three terminal rings are distinctly continued all round ; the others are merely 

 indicated on the lower surface. The rings are narrow and quite sharply defined, scarcely more 

 than half the width of their light interspaces. 



The hairs, examined separately, are black, with the central third whitish, the basal portion, 

 rather brown than black. Occasionally the extreme roots will be whitish. On the sides there 

 is more white in the hairs, those on the side of the shoulder being almost entirely hoary. 



This species bears a very close relationship to the P. lotor, and without close comparison the 

 differences are perhaps intangible. An examination, however, of a large number of North 

 American raccoons has resulted in the appreciation of certain differences, which appear quite 

 constant. These are as follows : 



In size, P. hernandezii is considerably the larger of the two ; no specimens examined of rac 

 coons from the eastern United States are as large as those of corresponding ages from the west. 

 The feet are uniformly larger and stouter, and the bare portion of the palms extends further 

 up the wrist. Thus the hind foot, from heel, always equals 4^ inches, even in a specimen of 

 only 18 inches, (exclusive of tail,) and maintaining the deciduous dentition, and sometimes 

 exceeds 4^ inches, while in P. lotor it is only in the very largest that it amounts to 4 inches, 

 usually less. The fore foot, from the naked part of the wrist, in a soft skin, (1053,) measures 

 three inches ; in a much larger skin of P. lotor, only 2 T V The thumb claw does not reach the 

 base of the claw adjacent to it, while it does in P. lotor. 



The tail of P. hernandezii is, in some respects, quite different from lotor ; it is rather longer 

 and thinner, and tapers slightly to the tip ; the black rings are narrower and better defined ; 

 the terminal three or four only encircle the tail completely ; the others are indicated below by 

 a pale brownish tint. The light intervals are wider than in P. lotor, being about twice as long 

 as the dark rings, and there is rather more ferruginous intermixed. 



A nearly constant difference is seen in the color of the upper surface of the hind feet. This 

 is of a liver brown all over, except perhaps near the base of the toes on the inner side, instead 

 of the 'uniform dull grayish white of P. lotor. This prevails in all the Texas and far western 

 raccoons, and I have' never seen even an approach to it, except in one skin from Wisconsin, 

 where there is a slight suffusion of brown along the outer edge and at the base. 



There is a decided tinge of rusty yellowish in the subtermmal annulation of the hairs on the 

 upper surface of P. hernandezii, so that while the tinge on the nape is as distinct in P. lotor, 

 the grayer colors posterior to it render this feature more strongly marked in the last mentioned 

 species. The ears of P. hernandezii are rather smaller and thinner than in the other. 



The descriptions of P. hernandezii given by Wagler and Wiegmann agree very well with the 

 specimens examined by me, except that there is not so decided a tapering of the tail as they would 

 seem to indicate. The prevailing color of the back and sides I find to be a yellowish gray, and 



