158 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [Vol.V. 



detailed description. The N. vittata was based on a melanistic speci- 

 men collected by the traveller Schoinburgk in the interior of Guiana, 

 to which is referred the black variety of Coati mentioned by his brother 

 in the "Annals of Natural History" (vol. iv, p. 431). The N. montana 

 is also a melanistic type, without the usual white spots about the eyes. 

 Four of vonTschudi's species are thus referable to the Liunaean V. nasua, 

 and one to the V. narica. 



Gray,* in 1843, revived the Linnaeaii name narica, but, although he 

 cites as the first synonym " Viverra narica, Linn.," all his other citations, 

 and doubtless all his specimens, are referable to Liune's V. nasua. He 

 recognized two species, the other being u Nasua rufa, Desm.," by which 

 he evidently intended the Viverra nasua of Linne. In 1864, t he for- 

 mally reviewed the group of Coatis, recognizing three species, add- 

 ing as new a " Nasua olivacea." He perpetuates the confusions of 

 nomenclature and synonymy of his earlier notice, and, so far as can be 

 determined by his descriptions, his material is all referable to the single 

 Linnsean species Viverra nasua. In ISGGf he added still another nominal 

 species under the name Nasua dor salts. In 1869, in his "Catalogue of Car 

 nivorous, Pachydermatous, and Edentate Mammalia in the British Muse- 

 um " (pp. 238-241), he gives the four species he had previously recognized 

 as follows: 1. Nasua rufa; 2. Nasua narica; 3. Nasua dorsalis; 4. Nasua 

 olivacea. The references under N. rufa are all pertinent to the Viverra 

 nasua of Linne ; those under Nasua narica, except the first three (" Viverra 

 Narica, Linn. S. N. i. p. 64 ; Schreb. Saugeth. t. 119 5 Ursus narica, 

 Tab. E16ni. p. 113, 1798"), and the "Nasua leucoryplia [lege leucorliynclim] 

 Tschudi, Arch, fur Naturg.", are also all referable to the same species, as 

 are his own N. dor sails and 'N. olivacea. To judge by his descriptions, as 

 well as by the localities given, his material is also all referable to Linne's 

 Viverra nasua, as all his species are described as having annulated tails. 

 It would be unsafe, however, to assume, that the Viverra narica was 

 unrepresented in the material at his command. Respecting his N. rufa 

 and JV. narica he says : " I have examined with care a series of skulls 

 which are said to have belonged to these two species, but have been 

 unable to discover any characters by which the skulls belonging to 

 one species can be distinguished from those belonging to the other. . . . 

 If I had only two or three skulls, I might have perhaps seen differences 

 which I might have regarded as distinctions ; but when a series of some 

 twenty or more are examined, it is impossible to define any distinction." 

 These suggestive remarks confirm me in the conclusion above expressed, 

 that Gray had before him only skulls of Viverra nasua, for he certainly 

 could not have failed to distinguish the skulls, or even the skins, of the 

 true "F. narica (Nasua leucorhynchus, von Tschudi) if he had had them. 



Giebel in 1855, recognized two species, namely, Nasua socialis and 



*Cat. Mam. Brit. Mns., 1843, p. 74. 

 t Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864, pp. 701-792. 

 t Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud., 1866, p. 169, pi. xvii. 

 Siiugethiere, pp. 749-751. 



