ALLEN ON THE GENUS NASUA. 155 



Coati brim, Viverra narica, Linn.", to wliich lie referred Buffoii's "pi. 48" 

 (the same plate is also referred to the preceding species!). 3. " Le Coati 

 roux, Viverra nasua, Linn.", to wliicli is referred Schreber's " pi. 118." 

 In 1820 he made a still more thorough confusion of the species, of which 

 he nominally, recognized two, under the names Nasua rufa and Nasua 

 fusca. His ^ r . rufa is F. Cuvier's " Coati roux" (Hist, des Mam., livr. i), 

 which is merely a red phase of the common V. nasua of Linne", while his 

 N. fusca is a composition of Linnets V. narica with Marcgrave's " Coati- 

 mondi" (referred by Linne to his V. nasua), the Coati and Coati noiratre 

 of Buffon, and F. Cuvier's " Coati bran," which last is also referable to 

 Linne's V. nasua. 



F. Cuvier,* in 1817, nominally recognized two species, but really de- 

 scribed only one, but confounded the synonyms of both. These are : 1. 

 "Coati roux; Viverra nasu-alAwi." In his description of this he cor- 

 rectly says : " le queue est annelee de noir et de fauve." 2. " Coati bran ; 

 Viverra narica, Buff., pll. 47-48." In his description of this he says : 

 " le queue est annelee de noir et de jaune sale," and therefore it is not 

 the Viverra narica of Linne. Furthermore, in citing here both of Buf- 

 fon's plates Ixvii and Ixviii, he confounds both of the Linnsean species 

 under the name " Viverra narica," and fails altogether to recognize the 

 true narica. 



Desmoulins, in 1823, followed F. Cuvier in making two species, and 

 while he adopted Linne's names he wrongly referred Schreber's plate cxviii 

 to Viverra nasua, and cites both of Buffon's plates Ixvii and Ixviii under 

 V. narica. Lesson, in 1827, simply followed Desmarest's nomenclature 

 and determinations of 1820. 



F. Cuvier, in the first livraison of his " Histoire des Mammiferes," 

 published in 1818, figured the red phase of the Viverra nasua of Linne 

 under the name " Le Coati roux," and in the fourth livraison (1819) of 

 the same work figured a pale fulvous variety and a pale brown variety 

 under the titles, respectively, of " Coati brun femelle, variete fauve," and 

 " Coati brun, femelle," and in the forty-eighth livraison (1825) figured 

 still another variety under the name "Coati bran-fonce"; all of which 

 are unquestionably referable to the Linna3an Viverra nasua. 



In 1826, Prinz Maximilian published his " Beitrage zur ISaturge- 

 schichte von Brasilien," in which work he bestowed on Linne's Viverra 

 nasua the name Nasua socialis, and added a 4 second species as " ? 2. 

 N. Solitaria" and further indicated 3. " f Nasua nocturna" He calls 

 attention to the great variability in color that the Coatis present, referring 

 to the fact that in the common Coati, known in systematic works as 



producto, cauda amiulata. Sysl. Nat. X, p. 44." His second citation is: "Meles ex 

 saturate spadiceo nigricans, cauda fusca annulis flavicantibus quasi cincta. Brlss. quadr. 

 p. 185." Whether the first reference relates to Nasua or to Procyon is hard to deter- 

 mine, but the second is simply Brisson's "Blaireau de Surinam." "Quasje" is well 

 known to be one of the native names applied to the Coatis in Surinam and some other 

 parts of South America. 



* Diet, des Sci. Nat., tome ix, 1817, p. 464. 



