RACCOONS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 5 



Procyon obscurus Wiegmann, Archiv fiir Naturgesch., dritter jahrgang, erster band, 

 p. 370, 1837. "Patria ignota." Figured by Wagner in Sclireber's Saugthiere 

 (p. 143 D). The plate illustration is of a very dark-colored animal. This seems 

 to be unidentifiable. 



[Procyon brachyurus] var. fusca Burmeister, Verzeichniss Zool. Mus. Univ. Halle- 

 Wittenberg Saugeth., Vogel Amphib., 1850, p. 13. Based on Procyon obscurus 

 Wiegmann and Procyon obscurus Wagner, in Schreber's Saugthiere, SuppL, 

 vol. 2, p. 159, 1841, without description. 



[Procyon lotor] var. melanus Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864, p. 704. No type 

 locality indicated. No type specimen designated. "Nearly black." 

 Unidentifiable. 



[Procyon lotor] var. albina Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864, p. 704. (Nomen 

 nudum.) 



P7-[ocyo7i] hernandezi castaneus de Beau.x, Zool. Anzeiger, vol. 35, p. 624, April 26, 

 1910. From Mexico. Based on a specimen (No. 357) which had been in 

 the Royal Zoological Museum, Florence, Italy, since 1857. According to 

 the description in part (p. 621), "Die Korperfarbe ist ein echtes und rechtes 

 Kastanienbraun mit prachtvoll silbrigem Glanze." The color of raccoons is 

 so variable that a single specimen does not afford reliable differential char- 

 acters. The color described is unusual for a raccoon and might be due to 

 fading or to erythrism. If the skin is accompanied by a skull, comparison of 

 the latter with those of the several geographic races known to occur in 

 Mexico might afford a clue to identity. 



Pr[ocyon] lotor rufescens de Beaux, Zool. Anzeiger, vol. 35, p. 625, April 26, 1910. 

 Type locality unknown ("?Heimat"). Type specimen not designated. 

 About 10 specimens said to have been examined. Body color more or less 

 suffused with rich red brown. Apparently not identifiable. 



Pr[ocyon] l[otor] flavidus de Beaux, Zool. Anzeiger, vol. 35, p. 626, April 26, 1910. 

 Type locality "Southern LTnited States?" Type specimen not designated. 

 Only one skin examined. Color dirty yellow. Hairs of back neither ringed 

 nor tipped with black. Apparently not identifiable. 



Pr[ocyon\ hudsonicus Brass, Aus dem Reiche der Pelze, p. 564, April 1911. No 

 type designated. Described as "sehr gross und granbraun." Apparently 

 based upon commercial skins assumed by the describer to be from Hudson 

 Bay where no raccoons occur. The name is therefore unidentifiable. 



HABITS 



Few North American animals are endowed with more interesting or 

 attractive ways than the raccoons. The general habits, as recorded 

 by many observers, seem everywhere to be very similar for the mem- 

 bers of each of the two subgenera. In Panama, Procyon and 

 Euprocyon share to some extent the same local habitat, both favoring 

 the vicinity of sw^amps and streams and both being addicted to the 

 crab-eating habit as shown by stomachs examined. But Procyon 

 seems to be more arboreal than Euprocyon, and the two probably 

 depart materially in general behavior. Dr. Thomas Barbour informed 

 the author that the local representatives of both subgenera have been 

 kept in captivity at the biological station on Barro Colorado Island 



