326 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIV, 



of the types of his genus Mephitis referred to V. mephitis of 

 Gmelin's edition, we then have for the type of Chincha a species 

 which is one of the two originally composing the Cuvierian genus 

 Mephitis, and one that is likewise identifiable, for V. mephitis 

 Gmelin is based on V. mephitis Schreber. 



" It is perfectly clear, therefore, that Lesson intended to apply 

 the name Chincha to the large two-striped North American skunks, 

 and it is used for these in a generic sense in the present paper." 



The whole question thus depends on the supposed availability 

 of Lesson's generic name Chincha for the North American large 

 skunks, while this in turn, according to Mr. Howell, rests solely 

 on the applicability of Viverra mephitis of Schreber to some of 

 the several species occurring in North America. In reality, how- 

 ever, Viverra mephitis of Gmelin and Schreber has no important 

 bearing on the case of Chincha since Mephitis, in a restricted 

 sense, had already been twice assigned to the large two-striped 

 skunks of North America before Chincha was proposed. 



THE GENUS Mephitis CUVIER. 



The genus Mephitis, as is well known, was established by Cuvier 

 for the ' Mouffettes,' in the first * tableau ' of his ' Legons d'Ana- 

 tomie Comparee,' published in the year 1800, and is equivalent 

 to his division c of Mustela of his ' Tableau elementaire de 

 1'Histoire naturelle des Animaux ' (p. 116) of two years' earlier 

 date. He there designated the group simply as ' Les Mouf- 

 fettes,' and placed in it only two species, as follows :. 



14 II. Le conepate. {Must, putida^] Viverra putorius L." 

 " 12. Le chinche. (Must, mephitis.} Viverra mephitis L." 



The first is evidently, by the diagnosis and the synonomy, the 

 Viverra putorius of Linnaeus and Gmelin, based primarily on 

 Catesby and Kalm, here renamed Mustela putida. It has long 

 been my opinion that Viverra putorius Linn, is referable, if to 

 anything, to the large skunks of eastern North America and not 

 to the little striped skunks, as some have claimed. As stated by 

 Bangs (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XXVIII, 1898, p. 223), it is 

 composite, being apparently " a combination of Mephitismephitica 

 and Spilogale ringens." Catesby's figure, however, has little re- 

 semblance to either, and may fairly be considered as drawn off- 



