240 Mr. O. Thomas oti 



Tiipc. Adult male. B.^I. no. 2. 2.5.3. Original numbor 

 ITlii. Killed 30th November, 1901. 



The British Alnsoum possesses three skunks obtained by 

 Mr. E. Lintlner at Esperanza, Santa Fe, and these may be 

 considered as topolypieally represeiitin<2^ C. siijf()cati.t, for 

 Azara * says of his " Yagouar(5 " (on which the name suffo- 

 cans is based) tliat " tiie most northern point at which I have 

 found it is in 29° 40' S. latitude " ; and as all his movements 

 and observations were up and down the River Parand, the 

 point at which this latitude crosses the river may be taken as 

 the type locality. 



Ihese specimens all have the hairs of the tail whitish for 

 their basal halves, with their ends black, a coloration of the 

 liairs only found elsewhere in the Patagonian species C. Ilum- 

 holdti. This arrangement is quite different from that in 

 C. p7-o(eiis, where, more as in the various Andean species, 

 each hair is unicolor, either black or white, the white sur- 

 passing the black at the end of the tail and forming tiiere a 

 whitish tuft. In the two baby specimens, 5 inches in length, 

 the tail ia very cons|)icuously bicolor, black for its basal and 

 white tor its terminal half. 



But the most noticeable point about this sjiecies is its 

 great variability in the extent and distribution of the white 

 stripes; for among this set there is one with them reduced as 

 in C. inca, others where their development is intermediate, as 

 in C. arcqnipce and chorensia^ and one with them passing on 

 to the sides of the base of the tail, as in C. chimja. In 

 addition, one has the hair reversed forwards from the withers 

 as in C jiorciuus. But in size C. proteus is widely different 

 from any of these Andean forms which it imitates in colour, 

 so that there can be no question as to its specific validity. 



G. Eligmcdontia griseofl ivus centralis^ subsp. n. 



3 adult ? and 2 young. 23rd to 30th November, 1901. 



Size slightly less than in E. g. domurum t. General colour 

 as usual greyish drab above, clearer drab on the sides, more 

 buffy on the runij). Belly pure wliite, the hairs white to the 

 roots. Ears large, uniformly brown. Hands and feet pure 

 white. Tail w ell-haiied, pencilled terminally, bruwii above, 

 white below. 



* Qiiodr. Parng. i. p. 211 (1801). 



t Althoufrh, following the lead of Ur. Allen, I describe d " E. do^norum " 

 88 a ifpecies of tlie " JE. griseiiflavun group," further consideiatiou convinces 

 me that thi.« is one of the caKcs where all the local forms of a widely 

 spread animal may be best con.-idered as subspecies of it, thus showing 

 tneir connexit>n with each other nonienclaturally. 



