174 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [FoZ.V. 



the generic name of the Coa.tis, and introduced the names rvfa and 

 fnsca, both of which, as already shown, are referable to the V. nasua of 

 Linne. Maximilian, in 1826, deliberately ignored all the prior specific 

 names, and introduced in their place social-is and soUtaria, both based 

 on the present species, although by some subsequent writers the latter 

 was adopted for the Linnaean narica. Yon Tschudi, in recognizing five 

 species of the genus Nasua, added two new synonyms to those of the 

 present species. 



The changes that have been rung on the various names above enu- 

 merated, especially socialis and solitaria, are sufficiently indicated in the 

 above table of synonymy, and in the general history of the literature re- 

 lating to the group already given (ant-ea, pp. 153-162). Other synonyms 

 of less prominence, although of earlier origin, are the Viverra vulpecula 

 of Erxleben, already mentioned as a curious compound of several widely 

 diverse species, including one unquestionably referable here. It is ap- 

 parently primarily based on Brisson's "Blaireau de Surinam," which is 

 unquestionably the present species, but also included Button's " Coase," 

 which is the Fisher or Mustela pennanti of recent authors. Gmelin's 

 Viverra quasje had in part the same origin, since it also included Bris- 

 son's "Blaireau de Surinam." Other less important or less prominent 

 synonyms are Desinarest's Myrmecophaga annulata and the "Myrmeco- 

 pliaya tetradactyla, L.?,? of Griffith's Animal Kingdom. Among later 

 synonyms are Gray's Nasua olivacea and N. dorsalis, which relate only to 

 particular phases of coloration. 



The LinnaBan specific name nasua having become untenable through 

 its adoption in a generic sense, the first name strictly eligible, though by 

 no means eminently appropriate, as it had originally reference to only 

 a prominent color- variety of the species, is that of rufa of Desmarest. 

 Socialis, applied later to the species in a broader sense, is otherwise not 

 especially distinctive, and is antedated by both rufa and fusca of Des- 

 marest, as well as by the barbarous term quasje. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. The present species appears to range 

 over the greater part of the continent of South America certainly from 

 Surinam to Paraguay, and from the Atlantic coast to the Andes, over 

 which extensive region it is one of the most abundant of the carnivorous 

 mammals, and apparently the sole representative of its genus. The first 

 suggestion as to the correct limits of the habitat of the present species 

 seems to have been made by Dr. von Frantzius in I860, as already cited, 

 he claiming that in all probability the present species did not occur in 

 Costa Eica, and was therefore limited to the Southern Tropics, as the 

 Costa Eican species doubtless was to the ISTorthern Tropics. The exact 

 boundaries of the habitat of either species still remain to be determined, 

 as well as also whether the two species anywhere occur together. 



