128 Mr. O. Tliomns on 



subspecies is as yet not ])ractical.)le, owing to tlie impossi- 

 bility of deciding to -which older known form each shouUl he 

 allocated. Those I have described all unquesti(<nably need 

 names, binomial or trinomial, and in the presence of the above 

 difficulty 1 think it better merely to use specific names without 

 attempting now to define which of them will ultimately go 

 together as subspecies. 



6. Conepatus porcinus *, sp. n. 



^ . Original number 1422. Cochabamba, 2600 m. 

 20th April, 1901. 



Size small, form rather slender. Fur comparatively short, 

 thin, and fine, though not so much so as in C. zorriuo'f ; 

 long hairs of back about -45-47 millim. in length. Hairs of 

 neck, from withers to occiput, directed forwards from a 

 mIioiI situated behind the shoulder. White connecting-band 

 and white longitudinal stripes only about ^-| inch broad, 

 except just at the whorl, where they are about 1^ inch ; 

 behind the stripes extend narrowly on to the rump, but not 

 on to the tail. Tail short and narrow, with longer white 

 hairs only at its tip; the latter just over 100 millim. long, 

 the black ones about 80 millim. 



Skull small and narrow ; palate little continued behind 

 molars, molars very large as compared with those of the larger 

 animal C. chorensis. 



Dimensions of the type (an adult but not aged male) : — 

 Head and body 310 millim.; tail 225; hind foot (s. u.) 

 ''Q>b''X', ear 25. 



Skull : length in middle line 70 ; basilar length 60 ; zygo- 

 matic breadth 43; intertemporal breadth 17*5; mastoid 

 breadth 38 ; palate length from gnathion 30*5 ; upper molar 

 10-1 X 8-2. 



llah. and type as above. 



Besides its colour-characters this form is readily recog- 

 nizable by its small size (remembering that the type is a 

 male), thinner fur, the reversal of its nuchal hair, and the 

 great size of its upper molars. Its comparatively lowland 

 habitat at Cochabamba is, of course, the cause of its thinner 

 covering. 



Mr. Simons did not get any skunks on the Amazonian 



* Cocba bamba = place of pigs. 



t C.zoriUa, km\. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) v. p. 217 (1900) ; renamed 

 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) viii. p. 528 (1901). 



X The bind foot now measures only 60 millim. s. u. and G8 millim. c. u. 

 I'erhap.-' Mr. Simons bas made a tJip of the pen. 



