156 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [Fol.V. 



u Nasua nifa- t " or " T7rm*ff nasuaj* he had. found red, gray, and brownish 

 individuals in the same family. He therefore held all these animals for 

 a single species till he learned from hunters that there were two, of which 

 one was small and slender, and associated in numerous companies, while 

 the other was larger, less slender,. and lived singly or in families; the 

 first being termed by the natives " Cuati de Bando" ; the second, " Cuati 

 Mundeo." Of the last, he says he had seen only a single example, yet he 

 believed in its existence in consequence of the reports of the Brazilian 

 hunters. He also says he regards it as unwise to name the species in 

 reference to their color, as, for example, " Nasua rufa and subfusca? 

 but deems it better to bestow names in reference to their modes of 

 life. He accordingly gives the name Nasua socialis to the " Cuati de 

 Bando " of the natives, of which he met with many specimens, and of 

 which he gives a detailed description. He says this is the common 

 variety, which has been named Nasua rufa, and which is sometimes of a 

 purer, sometimes of a more brownish red. His N. solitaria is the " Cuati 

 Mundeo" of the Brazilians of the eastern coast, but he expresses doubt 

 respecting its specific distinctness from his N". socialis. He describes 

 the body as entirely yellowish ash-gray, darker on the back, pale yellow- 

 ish-red below and yellowish-brown on the sides ; tail very pale grayish- 

 red, annulated with blackish-brown. The single example seen by him, 

 and which he describes, was an old male. Its larger size and stouter 

 form, as compared with his N. socialis, described from, female examples, 

 as well as its different habits, have since been shown to be merely sexual 

 or due to age. According to the Indians, this larger Coati (N. solitaria) 

 agrees in habits with the other species, except that it lives singly or in 

 families and is less social. 



In commenting upon the general subject, he says it is certainly wrong 

 to recognize three species of Coati, namely, " Nasua rufa, olfusca,* und 

 narica? as Eschwege has done, or four, by adding Geoffrey's Nasua 



* Illiger is credited by Maximilian, Fischer, Gray, and others, with the names Nasua 

 monde and Nasua obfusca, but neither of them gives references to the places of their occur- 

 rence. Gray, however, incorrectly adds, "Prodromus," but neither of these names 

 occurs in Illiger's " Prodromus," where he merely recognized two species under the 

 Linusean names of nasua and narica. In his " Verzeichniss der in Siid-Amerika vor- 

 kommenden. Gattungen und Arten," in his " Ueberblick der Siiugthiere nach ihrer Ver- 

 theilung iiber die Welttheile".(Abhandl. Berlin. Akad. 1804-11), he enumerates eight 

 "species" of .Nasua as follows : "Nasua Monde, minor, spadicea, Narica, Quasjef, Squash?, 

 f Cuja, f canina," but gives only the following means of identifying the new names. In 

 reference to them he says : "Die Arten [der Nasua'], von iihnlicher Farbe und Bildung, 

 sind bei den Schriftstellern sehr verwirrt. Ob Vulpecula, Quasje und /Squash, wirklich 

 -selbstiindige Arten, oder nur junge Thiere andrer Arten sind, kann man nicht mit 

 Sicherheit bestimmen. Ich rechne noch Mustela Cuja Molina und Gmelin, und Zimmer- 

 niann's Koupara, den Canis sylvestris Scba Thesaur. I. Tab. 30. Fig. 1, zu dieser Gat- 

 tung." The memoir in question abounds in similar instances of the multiplication of 

 names without formal characterization, five South American "species" of Gulo, for ex- 

 ample, being enumerated in the same connection. 



