RACCOONS OF NORTH AND AIIDDLE AMERICA 33 



Remarks. — Procyon lofor is divisible into 25 geographic races which 

 on the mainland form a closely intergrading series. The species 

 attains its largest size in P. I. excelsus of the Snake River Valley in 

 southeastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and southern Idaho, and 

 the smallest forms are from the Florida Keys. The palest subspecies 

 inhabit the hot arid delta of the Colorado River and adjoining regions, 

 and the darkest have developed in the regions of heavy precipitation 

 in Central America. 



PROCYON LOTOR LOTOR (Linnaeus) 



Eastern Raccoon 



[LVsws] lotor Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 1: 48, 1758. 



[Meles] lotor Boddaert, Elenchus Animal 1 : 80, 1784. "Habitat in America." 



L[otor] vulgaris Tiedemann, Zoologie. Zu seinen Vorlesimgen entworfen, erster 



band, Mensch und Saugthiere, p. 380, 1808, (part). From North America, 



Mexico, and the Antilles. 

 Procyon annulatus G. Fischer, Zoognosia 3: 177, 1814 (part). "Habitat in Ameri- 



cae maritimis." 

 Procyon lotor Illiger, Abhand. Konig Akad. Wissensch. Berlin, 1804-1811, pp. 



70, 74, 1815. 

 Procyon gularis Hamilton Smith, Jardine's Nat. Lib. 15: 222, 1848. From State 



of New York. 



Type locality. — Pennsylvania. ^ 



Type. — Not known to exist. 



Disfribittion. — Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, southern 

 Quebec, and southern Ontario south through the eastern United 

 States to North Carolina, and from the Atlantic coast west to Lake 

 Michigan, Indiana, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and probably 

 eastern Tennessee. Lower Austral to Canadian Zones. 



General characters. — A rather small, dark form with long, full, soft 

 pelage; skull with moderately high, narrow frontal region, and weak 

 or obsolescent postorbital processes. Similar to P. I. hirtiis of Minne- 

 sota, but much smaller; pelage less extremely long, and less suffused 

 with ochraceous buff; skull smaller. Differs from P. I. solutus of 

 Hilton Head Island and the coastal region of South Carolina in darker, 

 less grayish coloration, more elongated skull, and other cranial 

 details. Resembles P. I. litoreus of Saint Simon Island and the coastal 

 region of Georgia, but pelage longer and softer, and cranial characters, 

 especially the much smaller molariform teeth, distinctive. Much 

 like P. I. varius of Alabama, but larger, usually darker, and pelage 

 much longer; skidl larger and of heavier proportions. 



Color. — Upper parts, in general, varying shades of buffy grayish 

 (becoming ochraceous buff or rusty rufous on nape and across shoul- 



2 Type locality fl.xed by Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1911, p. 140. 



