490 Mr. O. Thomas on synall Mammah 



III this collection there is an interesting amount of geogra- 

 pliical isomorphism. Thus there are two species o£ skunks, 

 both with white tails, being almost the only white-tailed 

 skunks known. And there are no less than five different 

 Murines {Andinomys edax, two species of Phyllotis, and two 

 of Graomys) so similar inter se externally that they might all 

 be mistaken for a single species at different stages of age. 

 So striking a case of local resemblance between different 

 animals I do not remember ever to have seen before. 



1. Conepatus buditii, sp. n. 



S. 334. 



A rather small skunk with a conspicuous bushy white tail. 

 The upper molar large. 



Size a little less than in C. gibsoni, therefore distinctly 

 less than in any other S.-American species except the much 

 smaller C. proieus. Fur thick and abundant, with the usual 

 woolly underfur ; direction of nape-hairs in the type abso- 

 lutely normal, without whorls or reversed hairs. White 

 ftripes of body about an inch or a little less in breadth, 

 nnifed on the forehead by a junction of about tlie same 

 breadth, and evenly divergent posteriorly, the black median 

 area about 1-1^ inch broad on the nape, widening to 2| on 

 the posterior back ; the white bands dying away on the hip, 

 about 2 inches before the white of the tail commences. Tail 

 very fine and bushy, the hairs attaining about 100 mm. in 

 length ; a little white on each side of the tail-base, then a 

 small black median patch on its upper base; the whole 

 remainder of the tail white, apart from the presence of a few 

 isolated and scarcely perceptible black hairs intermixed with 

 the white. 



Skull alone exceeding that of C. proteus in size, its breadth, 

 especially its mastoid breadth, rather greater than usual in 

 proportion to its length, though the specimen is not very old. 

 Mesopterygoid fossa comparatively broad. Upper molar 

 large, subquadrangular, with its antero-posterior diameter 

 exceeding the outer length of p*. 



Dimensions of the type : — 



Head and body 340 mm. ; tail ^ 240; hind foot 55; 

 ear 30. 



Skull : greatest (diagonal) length 71"5 ; condylo-basal 

 length 66"5 ; zygomatic breadth 45 ; interorbital breadth 23 ; 

 intertemporal breadth 18'5 ; mastoid breadth 39; palatal 

 length 28 ; breadth across m^ 28 ; breadth of mesopterygoid 



* The tail, apparently perfect, is now barely 200 mm. in length. 

 Perhaps 240 is a lapsus calami on the part of the collector. 



