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



will be noticed more fully later in discussing Viverra mephitis 

 Schreber. We thus find that neither of Cuvier's two species of 

 Mouffette is involved with Spilogale. 



This is quite contrary to the conclusion reached by Mr. 

 Howell (/. c., p. 14), who says the removal in 1842 by Lesson of 

 Cuvier's first species to become the type of Chincha leaves his 

 second species (the Conepate), " one of the little spotted skunks, 

 as the type of Mephitis " ; and that " the name Spilogale, pro- 

 posed in 1865 by Gray for the little spotted skunks, will there- 

 fore have to be abandoned, becoming a synonym of Mephitis." 

 His conclusion in regard to Spilogale is, as shown above, obviously 

 erroneous, the fact being that Cuvier's original genus Mephitis in 

 no way or manner included any member of Gray's later genus 

 Spilogale. 



The first effective revision of Mephitis was made by Gray in 

 1837 (Charlesworth's Mag. of Nat. Hist, and Journ. of Zool., etc., 

 I> x ^37) P- 581), when he removed the bare-nosed skunks of 

 South America to form his genera Conepatus and Marputius, and 

 restricted Mephitis to the large skunks of North America. At 

 the same time he also divided Mephitis into two groups, desig- 

 nated as a and b, placing in the former only two species (described 

 as new) of the large two-striped skunks, and in the latter a 

 single species of the little spotted skunks, described as new 

 under the name Mephitis bicolor. 



In 1865 (P. Z. S., 1865, pp. 150) he named his section b Spi- 

 logale, with Mephitis inter rupta Rafinesque as the type and only 

 species, to which he refers his own M. bicolor, the only species 

 placed in his section b in 1837 ; Conepatus is retained exclusively 

 for the South American large skunks, and Marputius is properly 

 assigned as a synonym of Conepatus. The dismemberment of the 

 old genus Mephitis thus made by Gray was not only based on a 

 proper recognition of the facts in the case, but has stood without 

 question until Mr. Howell brought forward the case of Chincha 

 Lesson. 



Lichtenstein, in 1838, in his elaborate and excellent memoir 

 ' Uber die Gattung Mephitis' [Abhandl. der Konigl. Akad. der 

 Wissensch. zu Berlin, Phys. Klasse, 1836 (1838), pp. 249-313, pll. 

 i, ii], divided the genus Mephitis into two subgenera, namely, 

 Thiosmus (1. c., p. 270), for the bare-nosed skunks of Mexico and 



